Iron Deficiency in the White Rat and the White Mouse.

Abstract

This work is a development of the view that pellagra may be an iron-deficiency disease. 1 We have studied the physiological effects of iron restriction in white rats and white mice. The diets low in iron have been of 2 types: (a) A synthetic diet of casein, sucrose, butter fat, lard, a salt mixture which is iron-poor but assumed to be otherwise balanced, 2 vitamin B concentrate (Harris) and viosterol. (b) A diet of natural foodstuffs such as banana, orange juice, sucrose, freshly separated egg white, cream, and a salt mixture very low in iron but assumed to be balanced for the other elements, viosterol, vitamin B concentrate (Harris) and agar. These diets furnish protein of good quality in adequate amount, sufficient fat and carbohydrate and an abundance of vitamins A, B, D and G. All of our rats grew well.

Six series of from 6 to 8 rats each, and one series of 10 mice, raised in the laboratory and appearing vigorous and healthy at weaning age—about 21 days—were used. The young rats weighed at least 35 gm.

The results obtained have been entirely uniform, all rats and mice kept on these iron-poor diets developed the following symptoms:

If the young rats have not had access to rich sources of iron between the time that they open their eyes and the time of starting the experiment, the first symptoms of falling hair may appear as early as the 15th day of the experiment, or as late as 2 months.

The loss of hair is always strikingly bi-laterally symmetrical. The hair is not chewed off by the other rats, necessarily, because (a) when rats are kept alone the hair loss occurs in regions that are inaccessible to the rat itself, and (b) the intact hair with the bulbous enlargement, where it had been attached in the follicle, is found on the screen below the floor of the cage.