American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 37, 557-565, Copyright © 1983 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Impairment of blastogenic response of splenic lymphocytes from iron- deficient mice. In vitro repletion by hemin, transferrin, and ferric chloride

SR Kuvibidila, KM Nauss, SB Baliga and RM Suskind

Splenic lymphocytes from iron deficient C57BL/6 mice gave smaller proliferative responses to T and B cell mitogens than those from either the control of pair-fed mice. The addition of hemin to the culture medium partially restored the responses to Con A and phytohemagglutinin but not to bacterial lipopolysaccharide in unfractionated spleen cells and enriched T cell fractions. The responses of lymphocytes from the control and pair-fed mice were either unchanged or decreased. Hemin restored the blastogenic response to Con A more efficiently than to phytohemagglutinin. The blastogenic responses were increased linearly with increasing doses of hemin. Ferric chloride and iron saturated mouse transferrin did not restore the response to either Con A or lipopolysaccharide. However, both transferrin and ferric chloride partially restored the response to phytohemagglutinin. The possible mechanism of selective restoration of blastogenesis by hemin, transferrin, and ferric chloride in iron-deficient T lymphocytes is discussed.