Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1-1-1994
Abstract
Although boron has long been known to be a required nutrient for plants, it was not until recently that there was any suggestion of a nutritional requirement for animals and humans. Addition of boron to the diet of vitamin D-deficient chicks indicated that boron may play a role in animal nutrition. Studies with rats have demonstrated that supplemental dietary boron has most marked effects when the diet is deficient in known nutrients. We observed higher apparent-balance values of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus for rats fed a vitamin D-deprived diet with dietary supplemental boron (2.72 ppm), than for rats fed the same diet without added boron (0.16 ppm). The treatment group with dietary supplemental boron demonstrated a high degree of variability in response to boron. We hypothesize that relatively large and variable vitamin D stores in weanling rats from a colony supplemented with 3000 IU vitamin D/kg diet accounted for the observed variable response. A recent, unpublished study using weanling rats from a low-vitamin D colony appears to support this hypothesis.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Environmental Health Perspectives
First Page
55
Last Page
58
Recommended Citation
Dupre, J., Keenan, M., Hegsted, M., & Brudevold, A. (1994). Effects of dietary boron in rats fed a vitamin D-deficient diet. Environmental Health Perspectives, 102 (SUPPL. 7), 55-58. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.94102s755