The Kinetics of Iron Metabolism in Swine With Various Experimentally Induced Anemias

Abstract

In the preceding publication (1) the results of studies on the kinetics of iron metabolism (2-5) in normal growing swine were reported. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of similar studies in swine with three different types of experimentally induced anemias. As an example of a severe hemolytic process with no detectable impairment in the capacity of the bone marrow to produce erythrocytes, anemia induced by the administration of phenylhydrazine (6) has been studied. The kinetics of iron metabolism have been studied also in swine with anemia due to a deficiency of pyridoxine (6--8) and in swine with anemia due to a deficiency of pteroylglutamic acid (9-11). The last two anemias are quite different morphologically. That anemia associated with pyridoxine deficiency is microcytic and hypochromic, whereas that occurring in pteroylglutamic acid deficiency is macrocytic. In both, the plasma iron level is greatly elevated, there is a reduction in the amount of free protoporphyrin in the erythrocytes, and there is erythroid hyperplasia in the bone marrow. However, the tissues of the pyridoxinedeficient animals are heavily laden with iron, whereas hemosiderin deposits are not prominent in the tissues of swine deficient in pteroylglutamic acid.These studies were carried out in the hope of gaining an understanding of the pathogenesis of the anemia in these conditions and also with the expectation that these anemias of known and singular etiology might serve as patterns of reference for anemias which develop in human subjects. In a later publication (12) iron kinetics will be described in copper-deficient swine. The anemia accompanying that condition is microcytic and hypochromic and the level of iron in the plasma and tissues is low.

Studies on Copper Metabolism. Xix

“…The purpose of the present publication is to describe the results of studies on the plasma iron turnover rate, the red cell iron turnover rate, and the red cell life span as determined with radioiron (Fe ~) in three copper-deficient swine. Similar studies in normal swine (4) and in swine with various types of experimentally induced anemia (5) other than copper deficiency have been reported already. Data will also be presented on the in vivo life span of chromium-tagged erythrocytes in normal, copper-deficient, and iron-deficient pigs Methods Details concerning the diet, care, and handling of the swine have been described elsewhere (2).…”

Erythrocyte, plasma and total blood volumes of pigs from birth through six weeks of age

“…There are relatively few reports on the pig, and to the author's knowledge none have appeared concerning* total blood volume 51 determinations by the simultaneous measurement of Cr erythrocyte volume and T-1824 plasma volume in the pig. Hansard _et al (1951) In another publication (Bush _et al, 1956a), the same data as reported previously by Jensen _et al (1956) and Bush et al (1956b) for plasma volume, cell volume and total blood volume respectively (Wadsworth, 1954 The average blood volume of premature infants has been shown to be slightly higher than that of full term infants (Sisson _et al, 1959b). They concluded that original stores of nutrients derived from blood cell destruction in the premature infant are adequate for hemoglobin synthesis until only about 10 weeks after birth, thus explaining in part the development of iron depletion and deficiency at an earlier age in the premature than the full term infant.…”

The Pathogenesis of Anaemia in African Animal Trypanosomosis

“…Comparatively, nutritional deficiencies (Vitamin B 12 , folic acid and iron) in man are reported to result in defective red cells having shortened survival time (Harris & Kellermeyer, 1970). However, in pyridoxine (Vitamin B 6 ) deficiency, the erythrocyte survival time has been shown to be normal but in folic acid and copper deficiencies, it was decreased in swine (Bush et al, 1956). …”