Intestinal iron absorption and liver iron content in sla and C57BL/6J mice on an iron-deficient diet. Animals were maintained on an iron-deficient diet for 6 weeks from weaning, and iron absorption was determined by whole-body counting following the oral administration of radioactive iron as previously described.⁵  Absorption (▪) is presented as the percentage of the initial iron dose retained by the animals 5 days after dosing. Hepatic iron measurements (□) were performed on liver tissue as previously described.⁶  Data represent the mean ± SEM of 3 animals. Statistical differences were assessed using Student t test. P = .001 for iron absorption. P = .86 for liver iron content.