Tissue Mineral Distributions are Differentially Modified by Dietary Protein Deficiency and a Murine Nematode Infection

This study was designed to investigate whether mineral concentrations in the spleen, serum, and liver were modified by challenge infection with a gastrointestinal nematode, by infection dose, or by protein deficiency despite adequate dietary intakes of minerals. BALB/c mice fed protein-sufficient (PS, 24%) or protein-deficient (PD, 3%) diets were infected with 100 L3 of Heligmosomoides bakeri, drug-treated, and then re-infected with either 0, 100, or 200 L3. Protein deficiency and infection, but not dose, independently modified tissue mineral distributions. H. bakeri infection lowered serum iron concentrations in both diet groups. Despite this, PD mice had elevated iron and calcium concentrations and Ca/Zn ratio in the spleen as well as Fe/Zn ratio in liver, but they had reduced calcium, zinc, copper, and sulfur concentrations, and Cu/Zn ratio in the liver. Infection reduced calcium and iron concentrations and the Ca/Zn ratio in the spleen. We suggest that tissue mineral distribution is a consequence of Th2 immune and inflammatory responses induced by infection in PS mice and the switch to predominant Th1 inflammation in PD, nematode-infected mice.