| Effects of Dietary Boron in Rats Fed a Vitamin D-Deficient Diet John N. Dupre, Michael J. Keenan, Maren Hegsted, and Andrea M. Brudevold School of Human Ecology, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 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 A recent, unpublished study using weanling rats from a low-vitamin D colony appears to support this hypothesis. -- Environ Health Perspect 102(Suppl. 7) :55-58 (1994) . Key words: boron, vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, apparent balance, plasma calcium
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