title: Effects of dietary boron in rats fed a vitamin D-deficient diet.
abstract: Although boron has long been known to be a required nutrient for plants, it was not until recently that there was any suggestion of a nutritional requirement for animals and humans. Addition of boron to the diet of vitamin D-deficient chicks indicated that boron may play a role in animal nutrition. Studies with rats have demonstrated that supplemental dietary boron has most marked effects when the diet is deficient in known nutrients. We observed higher apparent-balance values of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus for rats fed a vitamin D-deprived diet with dietary supplemental boron (2.72 ppm), than for rats fed the same diet without added boron (0.16 ppm). The treatment group with dietary supplemental boron demonstrated a high degree of variability in response to boron. We hypothesize that relatively large and variable vitamin D stores in weanling rats from a colony supplemented with 3000 IU vitamin D/kg diet accounted for the observed variable response. A recent, unpublished study using weanling rats from a low-vitamin D colony appears to support this hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: School of Human Ecology, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803.
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Dupre
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Keenan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hegsted
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Brudevold
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001895:Boron / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000502:physiology*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D008274:Magnesium / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D008274:Magnesium; D001895:Boron; D002118:Calcium