Erythrocyte Life Span in Small Animals Comparison of Two Methods Employing Radioiron

Abstract
Employing radioiron-tagged erythrocytes, the life span of rabbit, rat and mouse cells has been determined. Avg. survival of the rabbit erythrocyte is 45-50 days, rat erythrocyte 45-50 days and mouse erythrocyte 20-30 days. Random cell destruction occurred in all species. Estimation of red cell life span in rabbits by the serum iron turnover-red cell utilization technic gave significantly shorter values.