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Purified Ferritin and Soybean Meal Can be Sources of Iron for Treating Iron Deficiency in Rats^1,2,

John L. Beard, Joseph W. Burton^* and Elizabeth C. Theil^,3

Department of Human Nutrition, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-0001 ^* Department of Crop Science and the USDA-ARS, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620 Department of Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7622

Ferritin and soybean meal were reevaluated as dietary treatments of iron deficiency in rats. Isotopes that had been used in the past were avoided because of contemporary knowledge of the physiological and structural complexity of ferritin protein and the solid iron mineral. Rats made anemic by iron-deficient diets were given equivalent amounts of iron as FeSO₄, horse spleen ferritin, baked soybean meal, or soybean meal plus ferritin. Full recovery (89–109%) from anemia and increased tissue iron occurred after 28 d of treatment with any of the iron sources, which contrasts to past bioavailability studies using ⁵⁹Fe-labeled ferritin and generally shorter periods of observation. Cultivar-specific variability was observed in soybean seed soluble iron and ferritin content (1.9–2.0 times the control cultivar, Arksoy), which was apparently heritable. The combined data suggest that manipulating ferritin expression and other soluble components of seed iron in soybeans and possibly other seeds, using Mendelian and biotechnological approaches, could contribute to a sustainable solution to global problems of iron deficiency.

KEY WORDS: • ferritin • iron deficiency • rats • soybeans

¹ Acknowledgment is made to the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service (NCARS) for temporary support.

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 8 June 1995. Revision accepted 3 October 1995.

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