The Anemia of Infection. V. Fate of Injected Radioactive Iron in the Presence of Inflammation 1

Since hypoferremia is so consistently associated with the anemia of infection (1), and since in- jected iron appears to be diverted from the plasma in infection (1, 2), it seemed desirable to deter- mine the fate of the diverted iron.In this study, radioactive iron was injected in- travenously into normal rats and in rats with acute inflammation.The blood and tissues were then analyzed after a period of time for radioactiv- ity.Preliminary studies were made in which only the blood and liver were analyzed in order to de- termine the appropriate amount of iron to employ.Radioactive iron was also injected intravenously into dogs, and analyses were carried out on a num- ber of tissues, including the exudates.