Mineral Metabolism—Copper and Iron

Abstract

Iron and copper have long been known to play important roles in respiratory phenomena, oxidation and reduction, enzyme action, pigment formation and in other vital phenomena. The importance of these elements, particularly the former, has been emphasized by the work of Warburg on the respiratory processes occurring in neoplastic tissues. Scott and co-workers 1 have shown that an apparent abnormal iron metabolism obtains in neoplasms. These findings, and those relating to hemochromatosis involvement in primary carcinoma of the liver and the failure in the treatment of neoplasms generally by means of specific chemical agents, have caused us to seek more information as to the metabolism of these elements in the animal body.

The work reported here deals with the influence of large amounts of copper sulphate on the magnitude of the iron assimilation of the various tissues of rats. The copper sulphate was fed as an integral part of an otherwise normal diet. Control animals received the same diet without the addition of copper sulphate. Daily consumption of the respective diets was equalized and recorded. Hence the diets of the 2 groups of animals differed only in the amount of copper as copper sulphate ingested. Distilled water was available to the animals at all times. Three feeding series were run, involving the use of 62 animals, of which 32 served as controls, the remainder receiving the high copper containing diet. All animals were maintained on screens and in individual cages throughout the feeding period of 12 weeks. In each series particular attention was given to securing uniformity of animals in the respective groups, distributing them not only according to weight and age, but also according to sex and litter. The animals were 4 to 5 weeks old when placed on experiment.