Effect of form of iron on nickel deprivation in the rat: Plasma and liver lipids.

In two fully-crossed, two-factor, completely randomized experiments, female weanling rats were fed a basal diet (containing about 10 ng of nickel and 2.3 μg of iron/g) supplemented with graded levels of nickel and iron. Iron was supplemented to the diet in experiment 1 at levels of 0, 25, 50, and 100 μg/g as a mixture of 40% FeSO4·nH2O and 60% Fe2(SO4)3·nH2O and in experiment 2 at levels of 0, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 μg/g as Fe2(SO4)3·nH2O. In both experiments, nickel was supplemented to the diet at levels of 0, 5, and 50 μg/g as NiCl2·3H2O. Regardless of dietary nickel, rats fed no supplemental iron exhibited depressed levels of plasma phospholipids and elevated levels of liver total lipids. Nickel deprivation elevated plasma and liver total lipids in rats fed supplemental ferric sulfate only. When dietary iron was supplied as a ferric-ferrous sulfate mixture, nickel deprivation depressed plasma, and did not affect liver total lipids. However, within each experiment nickel and iron did not interact to affect plasma and liver total lipids or phospholipids. The findings suggest that the effect of dietary nickel on plasma and iver lipids of rats is influenced by the form of dietary iron.