[Time and level of response of plasma, liver bone, leachable and stable hair fractions to copper deficiency and loading in the rat (author's transl)].

One group of 20 adult female rats was fed ad libitum for four months with a synthetic regime containing less than 1 p.p.m. Cu. A second group received the same regime, supplemented with Cu and containing 87 p.p.m. on the 1st month, 109 p.p.m. in the 2nd and 3rd and 158 p.p.m. in the 4th month. Hairs were not clipped at the beginning of the experiment. Five rats of both groups were killed at the end of each month and Cu was determined in blood, liver, femur, and hair. Hair was washed with a water-ethanol (I/I/I) solution for 30 minutes under mechanical shaking, and Cu was determined in the washing solution (leachable copper) and in hair (stable copper). No clinical symptoms of Cu deficiency were observed. However there was an early and important drop (p less than 0.001) in blood and liver copper as early as the first month, which continued until the end of the experiment. Stable hair Cu dropped slightly on the first month (p less than 0.005) and continued to do so on the following three months (p less than 0.001). Hair leachable Cu and bone Cu were unaffected by the deficiency. Liver Cu increased at the 158 p.p.m. level of intake on the fourth month.