Nutritional iron status and susceptibility to Proteus mirabilis pyelonephritis in the rat

Abstract

Moderately iron-deficient rats were significantly less susceptible to experimentally induced Proteus mirabilis pyelonephritis than iron-sufficient or severely iron-deficient littermates, as indicated by significantly lower prevalence of infection, mean pyelonephritic lesion scores, and numbers of P. mirabilis cells recovered from the kidneys.