Nutritional support in the treatment of aplastic anemia

Whether a specific nutritional support promotes healing of aplastic anemia (AA) patients is still unclear. Therefore, we explored the potential of a high-nucleotide, arginine, and micronutrient nutritional supplement on the nutritional rehabilitation of AA mice.

The BALB/c AA mice model was treated with hypodermic injections of acetylphenylhydrazine (100 mg/kg), x-ray (2.0 Gy), and intraperitoneal injections of a cyclophosphamide (80 mg/kg) combination. Then AA mice were fed with nutritional supplements in a dose-dependent manner (1445.55, 963.7, 674.59 mg/kg/d) for 7 wk. At the end of the experimental period, mice were autopsied. A full blood count was performed, and femoral marrow cell suspensions were prepared to assess the total femoral nucleated cell count and the number of committed hemopoietic progenitor cells (colony-forming units). The pathologic changes of liver and spleen were analyzed.

The significant increases of nutrient mixture groups were evident in many peripheral blood parameters. The femoral nucleated cell count and colony-forming units of nutritional supplements groups were markedly increased, compared with the AA group. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the number of mitochondria in similar bone marrow cells was increased in nutritional supplements groups. The nutritional supplements also affected the recovery of livers and spleens of AA mice.

Specific nutritional supplements accelerated rehabilitation of AA mice and can be used as nutritional support in the treatment of AA.