Abstract
Iron deficient rats (from Donryu strain) were prepared by feeding of iron poor diet for two months. The rats fed on the iron poor diet+deionized water became within this period: body weight 526±4.5→ 201.2±29.3g, hemoglobin 11.6±1.2→9.7±1.5g/dl and liver nonhemin iron 11.6-15.1μg/g. The control rats fed on the iron poor diet+iron supplemented drinking water grew as follows: body weight 52.1±4.7→228.4±32.0g, hemoglobin 11.6±1.2→15.4±1.4g/dl and liver nonhemin iron 112.6μg/g.
The rate of iron absorption was assayed after the administration of FeSO4 which was given in ten doses of 0.3mg Fe per os. Intestinal absorption of 59Fe given with the first dose of iron was 30.8-43.4% in the iron deficient rats and that of control animals was 7.8%. Hemoglobin value of the iron deficient rats recovered to 12.5-14.6g/dl, but the value of the control showed few change. Accumula-tion of liver nonhemin iron increased in iron deficient rats. From these results the following equations were calculated between hemoglobin values (x g/dl) and percentage of iron absorption (y) : y=10895x-2.579, and between hemoglobin values (x g/dl) and liver nonhemin iron (y μg) : y=2.032×10-4x5.413.
