Nephritis and Its Influence upon Hemoglobin Production in Experimental Anemia

Spontaneous glomerulonephritis develops not infrequently (11 per cent incidence) in the anemia colony. The course of the nephritis is insidious and usually extends over several years but ends in uremia, often with terminal bronchopneumonia. Hemoglobin production in these standard anemic dogs is well established as related to various standard food factors. These tests are summarized in the tables above to show the changes that appear year by year in the life of each dog. Nephritis causes little or no change in hemoglobin production in anemic dogs in the early stages of the disease. In the late stages of nephritis there may be no change or moderate changes in hemoglobin production in these anemic dogs. The average is 70 per cent of normal hemoglobin production in advanced nephritis. It seems unlikely that this degree of impairment of hemoglobin production in nephritis would result in spontaneous anemia in the dog.