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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Healthy Body Weight Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #71331
Title: COPPER AS A SUPPLEMENT TO IRON FOR HEMOGLOBIN BUILDING IN THE RAT

Author
item Klevay, Leslie

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: In the "roaring twenties" few causes of anemia had been identified; none were thought to be of nutritional origin. Although vitamins were becoming known, the few functions identified with copper were known only for lower forms of life such as crustacea. Hart, Steenbock, Waddell and Elvehjem showed in 1928 that anemia disappeared in rats given a milk diet if they also were given liver, ash of liver, or trace amounts of copper. Iron, alone was ineffective. Their experiment broadened the outlook of physiologists, biochemists and pathologists and may have begun the trace element era. Original data and apparatus are shown. Comparison and contrasts between nutritional research then and now are made. Unanswered questions remain.

Technical Abstract: In the "roaring twenties" few causes of anemia had been identified; none were thought to be of nutritional origin. Although vitamins were becoming known, the few functions identified with copper were known only for lower forms of life such as crustacea. Hart, Steenbock, Waddell and Elvehjem showed in 1928 that anemia disappeared in rats given a milk diet if they also were given liver, ash of liver, or trace amounts of copper. Iron, alone was ineffective. Their experiment broadened the outlook of physiologists, biochemists and pathologists and may have begun the trace element era. Original data and apparatus are shown. Comparison and contrasts between nutritional research then and now are made. Unanswered questions remain.