Abstract

Serum lipids were estimated in 17 healthy rabbits as acontrol group and 9 rabbits with the experimentally induced posthemorrhagic anemia. Anemia was induced in rabbits by serial phlebotomy with the three to four days interval. At each time of the phlebotomy, about ten percent of the total blood volume was drawn out from the rabbits and the phlebotomy was performed six times during the study. The anemic group consisted of low hemoglobin group and low hematocrit group compared with the control group. Both the anemic groups of the rabbits had low serum lipids levels with a mean of 57 to 87 percent of the controls. A positive correlation was established in male anemic rabbits for hemoglobin and hematocrit with the HDL-Cholesterol, cholesterol, Total lipid and phospholipid, but not with Triglycerides. Female anemic rabbits remarked the positive correlation only with the Cholesterol. The correlation of reticulocytes production with the decrease of the serum lipids was not significant in statistics. This study shows the correlation of hematocrit decrease and hypocholesterolemia was more significant than that of the hemoglobin and hypocholesterolemia. In conclusion, plasma dilutional effect was considered to be an of the most plausible explanations as the mechanism of the hypolipidemia accompanying anemia, however, there may be several other contributory factors with complexities that should be studied.