Avian Thiamin Deficiency

Abstract

PLAXES 31 TO 34Many investigators (1-6) have demonstrated that peripheral nerve fibers of animals deficient in vitamin B1 (thiamin) degenerate, and some (3,5,6) have noted similar but less marked changes in control starved animals. Other investigators (7-10) found no, or few, degenerating nerve fibers in thiamin deficient rats, chicks, or other animals, and almost all have expressed the opinion that the symptoms of thiamin deficiency cannot be explained on the basis of observable pathological lesions. Non-specific vacuolation and shrinkage of nerve cells in various parts of the central nervous system have been seen frequently in both thiamin deficient and starved control animals, but in a recent review Vedder (11) pointed out that marked changes, the appearance of which suggested exhaustion, were to be found in ganglion cells of the nervous system, especially in the lumbosacral region of the spinal cord?I t is apparent from these contradictory reports that the histopathology of thiamin deficiency is unsettled. Some investigators do not believe that degenerative lesions occur in thiamin deficient animals; others feel that the lesions that have been described are due to an absence of other factors from the diet, or to starvation; whereas those who did find degenerative lesions in this condition appear to be uncertain as to their exact nature. Finally, one is led to the conclusion that the lesions which were observed in starved animals are of the same indefinite type, e.g., degeneration of myelin or demyelinization, as have been observed in thiamin deficient animals. With one exception (7), the clinical symptoms that were observed in thiamin deficient animals were distinct from anything observed in starved or otherwise deficient animals.The general conclusion that a degeneration of myelin (or demyelinization) occurs in thiamin deficient and starved animals has been confirmed by the polarized light technique (12, 13), and by the same method it has been pointed out that many more degenerating nerve fibers are to be found in chronic than in acutely deficient rats (13).In a recent study of starvation in rats ~ marked alterations were observed in the

Acute Reversible Heart Failure in Africans

“…It must be pointed out that it was not found practical to maintain these African patients for any length of time on a lower vitamin B, intake, for such a diet was not bulky enough and made the subjects hungry and uncooperative. The diet used in this study supplied 0.25 to 0.3 mg. of vitamin B1 in 24 hours and it has been estimated that an adult weighing 70 Kg. requires 0.65 to 1.25 mg. of vitamin B1 per day to prevent the development of deficiency.4 On the other hand, patients at rest in bed probably require less vitamin B, than more active people' and, moreover, it is possible that synthesis of vitamin B1 may occur in subjects subsisting on a low-thiamine diet.6 Although these Africans were maintained on a diet that theoretically could not cure beriberi, nevertheless this possibility cannot be entirely dismissed.…”

“…Nine patients admitted to heavy drinking and 5 had eaten little food in the preceding 6 to 18 months. All were male, aged 24 Mlild exercise usually accentuated the circulatory phenomena and uncovered a third heart sound. Carotid sinus pressure produced no striking effects on the pulse rate.…”

“…During this time the daily urinary output was usually low, but in some cases rose as high as 80 ounces in 24 hours, possibly because the patients were allowed to drink unrestricted amounts of water.…”

Wild birds of declining European species are dying from a thiamine deficiency syndrome

“…The herring gull, for example, is a large white bird, which is easily discovered in colonies. The symptoms of the paralytic disease have previously been produced in controlled laboratory experiments with birds by thiamine depletion (15)(16)(17). Moreover, these symptoms differ in several ways from those of botulism (Clostridium botulinum poisoning), that also causes paralysis.…”

Nutritional Deficiency and Wallerian Degeneration in the Rat

“…Many of the early experiments must be discounted because the deficiencies produced were usually multiple, and the changes observed could conceivably result from the deficiency of a vitamin other than thiamine. However, Lee & Sure (1937), Davison & Stone (1937), Swank (1940), Street, Zimmerman, Cowgill, Hoff & Fox (1941) and Swank & Prados (1942) described histological changes in the myelin sheath of peripheral nerves of animals subjected to a deficiency of thiamine not complicated by deficiencies of other known dietary factors. Animals studied included rats, pigeons and dogs.…”