title: Amelioration of effects of severe dietary copper deficiency by food restriction in rats.
abstract: To test the effect of food restriction on responses to dietary copper deficiency, male weanling rats were fed two amounts of dietary copper via five dietary-intake regimens ranging from ad libitum to 70% of ad libitum intake. Copper-deficient rats exhibited characteristic signs, including depressed organ copper content, reduced activity of copper-dependent enzymes, enlarged hearts, and anemia. Food restriction attenuated the cardiac enlargement, red blood cell defects, and reduction of superoxide dismutase activity in copper-deficient rats. Mineral and enzyme assays suggested that possible mechanisms for this amelioration are the correction of copper status and/or the improvement of antioxidant status. Also, food restriction depressed serum cholesterol and enhanced cytochrome c oxidase activity in both copper-adequate and copper-deficient rats, which compensated for effects of copper deficiency. A second experiment illustrated that the mortality associated with severe copper deficiency was also inhibited by food restriction.
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, ND 58202-9034.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Saari
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Reeves
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology; D003300:Copper / Q000032:analysis / Q000172:deficiency*; D005508:Food Deprivation; D008099:Liver / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015032:Zinc / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D003300:Copper; D015032:Zinc