THE COPPER CONTENT OF INFANT LIVERS

Abstract

That copper is an active factor in hemoglobin production in the rat has, apparently, been demonstrated by Steenbock, Hart, and associates (l), and by McHargue, Healy, and Hill (2).McHargue (3) found more copper in calf liver than in ox liver, while Lindow, Peterson, and Steenbock (4) observed in the whole new born rat a higher percentage of copper than in rats at any other age.Bodansky (5) has shown that the human fetal brain is higher in copper than is the adult brain.The data presented in this paper indicate that the human infant may store copper also in the liver.Few analyses of the copper content of infant livers have been published.Yagi (6) reported, for a 1 year old infant, a copper content of 28.0 mg. per kilo of fresh organ.Flinn and von Glahn (7) cite a case 9 months old with 3.92 mg., and van Itallie and van Eck (8) four cases, ranging in age from birth to 3 months, with an average of 20.9 mg. per kilo of fresh tissue.The livers of nine children (3 to 12 years) reported by Yagi (6), van Itallie and van Eck (B), Kielholz (9), Schijnheimer and Oshima (lo), and Flinn and von Glahn (7), contained an average of 9.03 mg. of copper per kilo of fresh tissue.Data on the copper content of adult livers are considerably more abundant.The results of the analyses of 75 adult livers by Yagi (6), Lehmann (ll), Kielholz (9), van Itallie and van Eck (S), Schdnheimer and Oshima (lo), and Flinn and von Glahn (7) are summarized in Table I.A few other cases reported in the literature have not been included as the data were insufficient for comparative purposes.