Protein is known to aid iron absorption from foods. The possible complexation occurring between iron and an in-witro protein digest was studied by pH titration and by measuring the concentration of sulphydryl, amino and carboxyl groups in the presence and absence of ferrous and ferric iron. Complexation of iron was shown to occur with the protein digestion products and the carboxyl groups were identified as a site of complexation.
1. In vivo59Fe absorption from intrinsically labelled Fe-containing fractions of liver and blood were measured in rats by intragastric dosing. All rats were fed on a low-Fe diet for 3 d before dosing in order to standardize the Fe status of the intestinal mucosal cells.2. An increase in digestion time from 2 to 12 h increased59Fe absorption (P< 0.01) from all fractions except ferritin.3. Fe-deficient rats when compared with essentially Fe-replete rats showed decreased gastric retention for all fractions, but increased59Fe absorption over 2 h only from ferritin. Ferritin showed several unusual absorption characteristics.4. Dietary tungsten supplementation of Fe-deficient rats reduced the ferroxidase activity of intestinal mucosal xanthine oxidase. In addition, gastric retention and59Fe absorption (P< 0.05) from all fractions were increased.
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