Relation of skin lesions in the rat to deficiency in the diet of different B2-vitamins

Abstract

A NOTICEABLE feature about the earlier studies of the " dermatitis " occurring in rats when they are deprived of the heat-stable B-vitamins has been the irregularity of its incidence. The occurrence of two different types of skin lesions developing under these conditions was foreshadowed in earlier work [Chick & Roscoe, 1928, p. 795; Chick & Copping, 1930, p. 933] and has been more clearly demonstrated in recent investigations. As the members of the vitamin B2 complex have gradually been separated from one another, and since vitamin B1 has been available in the purified state, it has been possible to use basal diets supplemented with relatively pure preparations of one or other constituent [see Gy6rgy, 1934; Chick et al. 1935; Copping, 1936]. Type (a) is a florid dermatitis, roughly symmetrical, with swelling and redness of the digits of the paws and of the ears, "spreading over the limbs and trunk with cracking and desquamation of the skin", the so-called "rat pellagra" originally described by Goldberger & Lillie [1926] and called "rat acrodynia" by Gy6rgy [Gyorgy et at. 1937]. In the present paper the expression " dermatitis." is reserved for this skin disease. The lesions of type (b) occur more particularly in the skin over the head and chest with loss of fur and without swelling or inflammation. The fur becomes very scanty, especially over the head and forearms, and appears moist and matted, with bald patches of skin developing later. The eyelids and the nostrils become inflamed and the former are often stuck together with a serous, reddish fluid, which also exudes from the nostrils. The wrists become stained with this fluid from continual rubbing against the nose and eyes, and patches of fur round the vagina or penis also become stained by soiling with the urine. With the discovery that riboflavin was a nutritionally active constituent of autoclaved yeast extracts and that the vitamin B2 complex could be separated into riboflavin and a "supplementary substance ",evidence was soon forthcoming that type (a) skin lesions developed on diets containing riboflavin and that riboflavin had curative value for skin lesions of type (b) [Gybrgy, 1934; Copping, 1936]. Similarly, type (a) dermatitis yielded to treatment with the " supplementary factor" in the vitamin B2 complex, which was called vitamin B6 by Gyorgy [1934]. This substance was found present in the " Peters's eluate " from charcoal as prepared from yeast extract. It was later found to be adsorbed from yeast on fuller's earth [Birch & Gy6rgy, 1936] and has since been separated in the pure

Effects of zinc deficiency on food intake and feeding patterns of rats

“…In addition, the signs produced by force-feeding the deficient rats were similar to those described by Forbes & Vaughan (1954) when rats were force-fed a diet low in methionine. However, these authors found similar signs with diets low in histidine and some of these signs, particularly the appearance of porphyrins on the nose and feet, have been reported in deficiencies of nicotinic acid (Krehl, Sarma, Teply & Elvehjem, 1946) and of pantothenic acid (Chick, Macrae & Worden, 1940). Other workers have also shown that Zn deficiency produced changes in oxidation and incorporation of methionine into protein (Hsu, Anthony & Buchanan, 1969), in the incorporation of glycine into glutathione and in the pattern of plasma and liver free amino acids (J. Quarterman & E. Florence, unpublished observations).…”

Hair-Loss as Deficiency Test of Medullectomy in Rats

“…This is particularly true of the deficiency syndrome which characterizes avita¬ minosis of the B2 group. A comprehensive summary of these symptoms has been published recently [Chick, Macrae & Worden, 1940]. The peculiar phenomenon of the greying of the hair of black rats deprived of a vitamin, recently shown to be distinct from the group, deserves special mention in this connexion [cf.…”

Riboflavin, vitamin B6 and filtrate factors in wheaten flour and offals

“…was equivalent to 6 g. of the original liver. It was found unsatisfactory to give a starch diet in tests for vitamin B6, as all cereal starches contain some of this vitamin [Chick, Macrae & Worden, 1940]. After some preliminary experiments it was found satisfactory to give the basal diet and supplements other than vitamin B6 for a standard period of 14 days before administering the test material.…”