US EPA

8153865 

Journal Article 

Effect of methionine deficiency on arsenic deprivation in rats: Growth, blood parameters, organ weight/body weight ratios, and tissue trace element concentration 

Uthus, E; Poellot, R 

1992 

1 

Journal of Trace Elements in Experimental Medicine
ISSN: 0896-548X
EISSN: 1520-670X 

5 

3 

153-164 

English 

By using a low-methionine, amino acid-based diet, a study was performed to ascertain the effect of methionine deficiency on the response of rats to arsenic deprivation. A 2 x 2 factorially arranged experiment used groups of six male weanling Sprague-Dawley rats. They were fed a 14% amino acid-77% acid-washed ground corn diet for 6 weeks. The dietary variables were arsenic at 0 or 1 μg/g and methionine at 1 or 5 g/kg. The basal diet contained about 10 ng As/g and calculated concentrations of 0.14% methionine and 0.44% cystine. An interaction between arsenic and methionine affected growth, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, heart concentration of calcium, and femur concentrations of copper, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. Variables affected by methionine regardless of dietary arsenic included liver weight/body weight; heart weight/body weight; and kidney weight/body weight ratios; liver concentrations of iron and sodium; heart concentrations of magnesium, manganese, and zinc; and femur concentrations of iron and sodium and femur percentage ash. Regardless of dietary methionine, arsenic deprivation affected hematocrit, hemoglobin and the concentration of blood arsenic and femur calcium. The study supports the hypothesis that arsenic has a physiological role affecting methionine metabolism. The findings also indicate that some of the signs of arsenic deprivation, especially when dietary methionine is inadequate, are similar to signs of pyridoxine deficiency.