Nutritional blindness in the cat

Scott, Patricia P.; Greaves, J. P.; Scott, Mike

doi:10.1016/s0014-4835(64)80043-9

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It has been demonstrated that mature cats are dependent on a dietary source of taurine to maintain their body taurine pools and that if they become taurine depleted they develop retinal degeneration [Scott et al, 1964; Hayes et al, 1975a,b;Schmidt el al, , 1977Anderson et al, 1979;Barnett and Burger, 1980;Burger and Barnett, 1982; Ricketts, 19831. Although such dietary taurine depletion also results in large decreases in the brain taurine concentrations of mature cats Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abnormal visual cortex development in the kitten associated with maternal dietary taurine deprivation

Palackal

Moretz

Wisniewski

et al. 1986

J of Neuroscience Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have examined the visual cortex of newborn and 8-week-old kittens born to mothers consuming a taurine-supplemented or taurine-free diet using the rapid Golgi technique. Kittens from taurine-supplemented mothers exhibited normal development of the visual cortex. Kittens from taurine-depleted mothers showed striking differences. In newborn kittens, neuroblasts are aggregated both at the ventricular and pial zones, having failed to migrate and differentiate normally. Eight weeks after birth, only few pyramidal and nonpyramidal neurons are found. Those present have heavily spined dendritic processes indicative of poor arborization. Protoplasmic astrocytes are represented by undifferentiated cellular masses. The taurine concentration in the cortex of such kittens is four- to fivefold smaller than in kittens from taurine-supplemented mothers. These results suggest that normal concentrations of taurine in visual cortex, as well as cerebellum, are required for normal ontogeny of neurons. Once such deficits are established in the prenatal and immediate postnatal period, they result in permanent abnormalities. These findings have clear implications for vegetarian women who intend to have children, since virtually no taurine is present in plants and vegetables.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abnormal visual cortex development in the kitten associated with maternal dietary taurine deprivation

Palackal

Moretz

Wisniewski

et al. 1986

J of Neuroscience Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Scott et al (1964) reported that cats given a diet based on casein developed progressive retinal degeneration, which was not corrected by the addition of vitamin A to the diet. However, cats reared on a meat-based diet were normal.…”

Section: Taurinementioning

confidence: 99%

Idiosyncratic nutrient requirements of cats appear to be diet-induced evolutionary adaptations

Morris

2002

NRR

140

147

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cats have obligatory requirements for dietary nutrients that are not essential for other mammals. The present review relates these idiosyncratic nutritional requirements to activities of enzymes involved in the metabolic pathways of these nutrients. The high protein requirement of cats is a consequence of the lack of regulation of the aminotransferases of dispensable N metabolism and of the urea cycle enzymes. The dietary requirements for taurine and arginine are consequences of low activities of two enzymes in the pathways of synthesis that have a negative multiplicative effect on the rate of synthesis. Cats have obligatory dietary requirements for vitamin D and niacin which are the result of high activities of enzymes that catabolise precursors of these vitamins to other compounds. The dietary requirement for pre-formed vitamin A appears to result from deletion of enzymes required for cleavage and oxidation of carotenoids. The n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) requirements have not been defined but low activities of desaturase enzymes indicate that cats may have a dietary need for pre-formed PUFA in addition to those needed by other animals to maintain normal plasma concentrations. The nutrient requirements of domestic cats support the thesis that their idiosyncratic requirements arose from evolutionary pressures arising from a rigorous diet of animal tissue. These pressures may have favoured energy conservation through deletion of redundant enzymes and modification of enzyme activities to result in metabolites more suited to the cat's metabolism. However, this retrospective viewpoint allows only recognition of association rather than cause and effect.

show abstract

“…Feline retinopathy of dietary origin was first described by Greaves & Scott (1962), further details were given later (Scott, Greaves & Scott, 1964). In these experiments cats were fed a semi-purified diet based on casein, similar therefore to the diet fed by several of the current investigators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these authors, in addition to a generalized advanced retinopathy, described other ocular signs of conjunctivitis, keratitis and corneal vascularization, cataract and photophobia, none of which have been described in any of the taurine work. Scott et al (1964) considered that defective utilization and storage of vitamin A was responsible for their feline retinopathy and also described other signs of gingivitis, squamous metaplasia of the parotid duct opening, loss of weight and poor condition. Morris (1965) also described a feline degenerative retinopathy after feeding a synthetic diet based on casein.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%