The effect on mouse-liver catalase activity and blood-haemoglobin level of a milk diet deficient in iron, copper and manganese

Abstract

In weanling mice a diet of milk and glucose supplemented with Fe, Cu and Mn was equivalent to a normal cube diet for the normal development of liver catalase activity. There was a marked sex difference in enzyme activity from about 5 wks. of age. The difference disappeared in mice kept on a diet of milk alone, in which the enzyme level approximated the high level in normal males. The hemoglobin level fell sharply during this process. When mice were transferred to a normal cube diet after 5 wks. on milk, the hemoglobin and female catalase levels returned to normal, the male catalase activity remained unchanged. Castrated males, kept on milk supplemented with Fe, Cu, and Mn, maintain normal low catalase activity. On a milk diet unsupplemented with trace metals the activity increased as in females to approx. that of non-castrated males. Addition of Fe to milk produced no change in the catalase levels reached with milk alone, although hemoglobin usually fell less rapidly. Addition of Cu or Mn to milk was partially effective in maintaining a normal development of catalase activity. Cu and Mn together were as effective as Fe, Cu, and Mn in normal females. In animals maintained for 4 wks. on a diet of milk supplemented with Fe, the addition of Cu, or Cu and Mn produced a sharp fall in female catalase level, but left the male level substantially unchanged. Mn added to milk and Fe was less effective, and Cu and Mn together were more effective than Cu alone in restoring the normal level in females. The addition of Cu to the diet of castrated males kept on milk and Fe sharply reduced the catalase activity to near the normal level. Testosterone injd. into females maintained on various diets increased the catalase activity only to the level obtained in Cu-Mn deficiency. No further rise was obtained in females in which the level was already raised by Cu and Mn deficiency. Cu- and Mn-deficient mice showed other evidence of abnormality, notably loss of hair, and very light-colored livers.