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Biomedical subjects

R Ellis

Publications and source records attributed to R Ellis.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Bioavailability to rats of iron and zinc in wheat bran: response to low-phytate bran and effect of the phytate/zinc molar ratio.

Low-phytate wheat bran was produced by enzymatic hydrolysis and extraction. Rat bioassay methods were utilized to determine bioavailability of iron and zinc in the low-phytate brans and to study the effect of dietary phytate/zinc molar ratio on zinc bioavailability when the phytate source was bran. Endogenous phytase activity hydrolyzed 80-100% of the phytate when wheat bran was incubated in water overnight. The relative biological values of the iron in raw bran and phytate-free bran were 98 and 113, respectively, compared to 100 for ferrous ammonium sulfate in a hemoglobin repletion assay. Low-phytate brans with phytate/zinc molar ratios of 8 or less were equivalent to zinc sulfate as dietary sources of zinc for growth of rats. Rats fed diets that contained wheat bran with zinc sulfate added to reduce the dietary phytate/zinc molar ratio from 40 or 50 to 20 grew at the same rate as rats fed a phytate-free diet, but femur zinc values were lower than those in the reference group. Gel filtration chromatography of extracts of raw and low-phytate brans suggested that zinc might be associated with phytate in wheat bran.

Animals↗

Effect of dietary phytate/zinc molar ratio on growth and bone zinc response of rats fed semipurified diets.

In rats fed semipurified diets, bioavailability of dietary zinc was tested at different phytate/zinc molar ratios; growth and zinc in femurs were the criteria of adequacy. On diets with 10--12 ppm zinc, the growth of rats was not affected by phytate/zinc molar ratios of 12 or less if the level of dietary calcium was 0.75% but was depressed at ratios greater than 6 if the level of calcium was 1.75%. Phytate/zinc molar ratios greater than these did not depress growth if the dietary zinc concentration was at least 2.5 and 5 times the minimal requirement for growth at dietary calcium levels of 0.75 and 1.75%, respectively. At the maximum phytate/zinc molar ratio that did not depress growth, accumulation of zinc in femurs was depressed. Small increases in dietary calcium (from 0.75 to 0.87%) depressed growth of rats fed diets with 12 ppm zinc and a phytate/zinc molar ratio of 25. Preformed Zn3 and Zn6 phytate preparations were equivalent to ZnSO4.7H2O as dietary zinc sources. The data indicated that high dietary calcium per se reduced zinc bioavailability. The maximum phytate/zinc molar ratio that did not depress growth of young rats was greatly influenced by dietary calcium level and somewhat influenced by total dietary zinc concentration.

Animals↗

In vitro activation of feline complement by feline leukemia virus.

Incubation of normal feline serum with purified feline leukemia virus (FeLV) at 37 degrees C for 30 min resulted in the activation of the complement system via the classical pathway as demonstrated by consumption of the C1, C4, C2, C3, and, to a lesser extent, the later C components. A similar finding was observed when normal human serum was substituted for normal cat serum. In contrast, complement-dependent lysis of FeLV with normal feline serum as assayed by the release of ribonucleic acid-dependent deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase was one-third that of complement-dependent FeLV lysis with normal human serum. The levels of total hemolytic complement and neutralizing antibody in individual feline sera were also not proportional to the degree of virolytic activity. These observations indicate that the inefficient virolysis of FeLV by normal cat serum may be one of the factors contributing to the high incidence of leukemia observed in cats.

Animals↗

Granulocytic sarcoma of the skin.

A patient with aleukemic leukemia of the acute granulocytic type, who initially had granulocytic sarcoma of the skin, is described. The skin contained focal infiltrates of pleomorphic mononuclear cells that were identified as granulocytes by demonstration of intracytoplasmic naphthol-ASD-chloroacetate esterase and lysozyme.

Aged↗

Fever of undetermined origin: role of cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus.

Roles of various infections, neoplasms and granulomatous diseases in fever of unknown origin were studied in 22 patients. Bacterial infections were responsible in seven (32 percent), herpes viruses in five (23 percent), neoplasms in four (18 percent) and granulomata in two (9 percent) cases. Patients with herpes infections had initially no clinical or routine laboratory clues to viral involvement, and were given an intensive workup for 5 to 15 days. The diagnosis was made on the basis of cytomegalovirus or Epstein-Barr virus lgM antibody titers.

Adolescent↗

Isolation of monoferric phytate from wheat bran and its biological value as an iron source to the rat.

The objectives of the study were to isolate and chemically characterize the iron in wheat and to determine the biological availability to the rat of the iron as the purified complex(es). Hard wheat bran contained no butanol extractable or water extractable iron, but approximately 60% of the iron was extracted by 1 to 1.2 M NaCl or ammonium acetate solution. This salt extractable iron complex was purified and identified as monoferric phytate. The purified monoferric phytate was soluble in water. Synthetic monoferric phytate was prepared from sodium phytate and ferric chloride and determined to have spectral characteristics and gel filtration chromatography behavior identical to the complex isolated from wheat bran. The butanol-water-salt extracted bran residue contained no detectable phytate and an as yet uncharacterized form of iron. The biological availability of the iron to the rat was determined by a hemoglobin depletion-repletion bioassay. The relative biological value of the iron as monoferric phytate, either isolated from wheat bran or the synthetic product, was equal to the reference compound, ferrous ammonium sulfate. In contrast, the biological availability of the iron in the bran residue was significantly lower and the low biological availability of an insoluble form of ferric phytate was confirmed. It is concluded that the major portion of the iron in wheat is monoferric phytate and has a high biological availability to the rat. Monoferric phytate in bran may be bound to cationic sites of proteins or other cellular components and utilization of the iron may be through solubilization of the monoferric phytate by ion exchange type mechanism rather than by hydrolysis of the phytate as has been postulated.

Animals↗