The influence of dietary minerals and fat on the absorption of lead.

The nutritional factors influencing the absorption of lead from the gut have been studied using both intact animals and ligated gut loop preparation. Short-term feeding studies have been made in groups of six animals using diets of constant lead content (0.075%) but in which the nutritional components were varied sequentially. Dietary lead was labelled with 203Pb. Absorption was determined in the carcass and individual organs by means of a small-animal wholebody counter. The results showed that absorption was enhanced to twenty-times control value by diets deficient in minerals and seven-fold by diets of high fat content. Conversely, high mineral diets have been shown to result in a two-fold reduction in lead absorption. The interaction of lead with individual dietary components has been further studied under controlled conditions using ligated gut loop preparations. Using this technique the relative roles of luminal interaction and tissue response for lead absorption have been explored and the kinetics of lead absorption determined.