An animal model to study iron availability from human diets

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Abstract
1. The retention of ferric- and ferrous-iron was determined in guinea-pigs and monkeys using55Fe and59Fe.2. The bioavailability of Fe from two typical Indian diets based on rice and wheat was determined in humans and monkeys using a59Fe tracer and whole-body counting.3. The retention ratio, ferric-Fe; ferrous-Fe was 0.90 in guinea-pigs and 0.33 in monkeys, indicating that monkeys absorb ferrous-Fe preferentially.4. In monkeys retention of Fe from the test diets, as from ferrous ascorbate was lower than that in humans.5. When food-Fe retention was expressed in relation to inorganic-Fe retention the value for retention ratio, food Fe: inorganic Fe in monkeys was similar to that in human subjects.6. The results indicate that the monkey can be used as a model to study Fe absorption from human diets.