Effect of Form of Iron on the Interaction Between Nickel and Iron in Rats: Growth and Blood Parameters

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Abstract
In two fully-crossed, two factor, completely randomized designed experiments, female weanling rats were fed a basal diet (containing about 10 ng of nickel and 2.3 µg of iron/g) supplemented with graded levels of nickel and iron. Iron was supplemented to the diet in experiment 1 at levels of 0, 25, 50 and 100 µg/g as a mixture of 40% FeSO4·nH2O and 60% Fe2(SO4)3·nH2O and in experiment 2 at levls of 0, 12.5, 25, 50 and 100 µg/g as Fe2(SO4)3·nH2O (92% of the salt was in the ferric form). In both experiments, nickel was supplemented to the diet at levels of 0, 5 and 50 µg/g as Nicl2·3H2O. When ferric sulfate was fed, an interaction between nickel and iron affected the hematocrit, hemoglobin level and plasma alkaline phosphatase activity which did not occur when a mixture of ferric and ferrous sulfates was fed. Growth, hematocrit and hemoglobin level, but not plasma cholesterol, of rats fed ferric sulfate were affected by dietary nickel. The effect of dietary nickel on hematocrit and hemoglobin level was less obvious and on plasma cholesterol was significant when rats were fed ferric-ferrous sulfate. Hematocrits and hemoglobin levels were lower in nickel-deprived than in nickel-supplemented rats only when iron was supplemented at low levels as ferric sulfate. When iron was added to the diet at 100 µg/g as ferric sulfate or at 25, 50 and 100 µg/g as a ferric-ferrous sulfate mixture, dietary nickel had no obvious affect on hematocrits and hemoglobin levels. This suggests that nickel has a role in the absorption of the ferric ion.

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