Cobalt Glutamate in Nutritional Anemia. ∗

Abstract

While our studies on milk anemia 1 , 2 were in progress, evidence appeared in the literature 3 , 4 which indicated that cobalt stimulated blood regeneration in nutritional anemia, Therefore, experiments were conducted to determine the effect of cobaltous glutamate as compared to inorganic cobalt in hematopoiesis, when supplementing a whole milk (klim)-iron-copper diet. The technique was as previously described. 1

In preliminary experiments it was found that rats, which had recovered from anemia by supplementing the whole milk (klim) ration with Fe and Cu showed renewed hematopoietic activity when the diet was further supplemented with 0.5 mg. cobalt as cobalt nitrate. Thus at the end of a feeding period of 6 weeks, a group of 3 “cobalt” rats gave average values of 18.6 gm. and 11.0 millions for the hemoglobin and erythrocytes respectively as compared to 14.6 gm. and 8.4 millions for a group of “non-cobalt” controls. Both groups gave approximately equal values for these constituents at the beginning of the experiment.

Accordingly, further tests were performed with young anemic animals. Four groups of 3 rats each were employed. The animals were distributed in each group according to sex and litter in order to obtain more representative results. Groups 1 and 3 received 0.5 mg. of ferrous glutamate plus 0.1 mg. of copper glutamate and served as controls for groups 2 and 4 respectively. The cobalt (0.5 mg.) was administered as a bivalent compound of glutamic acid in group 4 and as cobalt nitrate in group 2.

The average results for the groups are shown graphically in Figures 1 and 2 and it can be seen that all the animals showed rapid blood regeneration. However, in the “cobalt” rats, the hematopoietic response was much more extensive, the individual hemoglobin levels reaching values of 18 to 24 gm. and the erythrocytes increasing to 13 to 16 millions.