The Role of Dietary Protein in Hemoglobin Formation

Plasma Protein and Hemoglobin in the Protein-Deficient Rat. A Three-Dimensional Study 1

“…Altered caloric intake or inanition alone apparently does not result in anemia (8,10). In the realimentation of animals made anemic by bleeding, protein preferentially restores the hemoglobin to normal levels; therefore, the mechanism of anemia is apparently not irreversible (10,46). The observations of this report are in accord with the suggestion that a diminution in unit cell volume is a prominent factor in the anemia of chronic protein deficiency.…”

“…Chronic protein deficiency did not markedly alter the hemoglobin concentration during the 10 to 14 weeks of observation. This finding is somewhat at variance with another report (10), in which a decrease in hemoglobin concentration from 15.8 to 11.5 per cent over a similar period of time was observed. The two experiments are not strictly comparable in that this other deficient diet contained 3.5 per cent protein as lactalbumin.…”

“…In the consideration of unit circulating hemoglobin, the decrease with both acute and chronic protein deficiency was probably a function of altered blood volume (9) and induced hypochromia (8,10). The apparent differential change in the acute deficiency was complicated by the relative contractions of unit cell and plasma volumes in the previously well-nourished and previously deficient rats.…”

“…Inadequate synthesis of hemoglobin, therefore, does not seem to be solely responsible. Altered caloric intake or inanition alone apparently does not result in anemia (8,10). In the realimentation of animals made anemic by bleeding, protein preferentially restores the hemoglobin to normal levels; therefore, the mechanism of anemia is apparently not irreversible (10,46).…”

“…of blood is a function of the sum of the weights of its cells and plasma. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume of rat erythrocytes are proportionally decreased (31), and the anemia of protein deficiency in rats appears to be microcytic and hypochromic (8,10); therefore, it would seem that the above gravimetric relationships probably are valid in this instance. The formulae for calculation of hemoglobin are dependent upon its oxygen capacity.…”