Female Rats are Protected against the Fructose Induced Mortality of Copper Deficiency

Abstract

Experiments were conducted in copper deficient male and female rats fed diets containing fructose or starch in order to determine whether the same type of interaction between copper status and dietary carbohydrate found in male rats also occurs in the female rat. Mortality occurred only in the male rats fed the fructose diet deficient in copper with 40% of the animals dying during the 8 week study. Only anemia, hypercholesterolemia, increased BUN, heart hypertrophy and reduced body weight were observed in these animals which could be related to their mortality. Despite the increased mortality, plasma ceruloplasmin, erythrocyte SOD and hepatic copper concentrations were reduced to a similar extent in all rats regardless of the sex of the animals or of the type of dietary carbohdrate fed. The results of the present study indicate that although direct measurements of copper status of female rats fed fructose diet deficient in copper are similar to their male counterpart, they are apparently protected from the lethal consequences of the deficiency.

Copper deficiency in rats: the effect of type of dietary protein.

“…This finding is in agreement with past studies in which male rats fed either starch or fructose exhibited similar concentrations of Cu in numerous tissues, and yet only Cu-deficient rats fed fructose exhibited severe pathol ogies [1][2][3]. In addition, female and male rats that were fed the fructose diet deficient in Cu were similarly Cu deficient, but only males developed numerous pathologies; they died of the deficiency, while females survived [20]. Thus, other factors in addition to Cu participate in the production of the pathologies associated with Cu defi ciency.…”

Trace Element and Mineral Nutrition in Ischemic Heart Disease

“…When deaths are sudden, deficient males are more susceptible (165), when deaths occur with thrombosis, deficient females are more susceptible (166). Lerner et al (167) confirmed the observation of Spiekerman et al (36) that sudden death in ischemic heart disease is more common in men.…”

Sex dependent differences in trace element levels in rat tissues

“…It was shown that female rats are protected against the fructose induced mortality of copper deficiency [4]. An other study reports that male rats fed fructose based, low copper diet show 100% mortality, cardiac hypertrophy and anemia under conditions where female rats fed the same diet remained unaffected [14].…”