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The Influence of Vitamin C Level Upon Resistance to Diphtheria Toxin¹

I. Changes in Body Weight and Duration of Life

Two Figures

Departments of Chemistry and Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

Guinea pigs under controlled conditions and receiving definite daily quantities of vitamin C at abundant, protective, and sub-protective levels, were given subcutaneous injections of standardized diphtheria toxin in 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 M.L.D. When the animals were partially depleted of their vitamin C reserves without showing external signs of scurvy, the survival time was shortened about 50 per cent and the loss in body weight was more severe. Hemorrhage and necrosis at the site of toxin injections were more marked in the latent scurvy condition. The decrease in oxygen consumption capacity of liver and kidney tissue after toxin injection was in the range of 5 to 15 per cent. It is evident from the study that there is a wide zone of vitamin C deficiency, without the appearance of scurvy, where physiological processes are subnormal and the animal is more sensitive to injury from bacterial toxin.

Manuscript received 24 April 1935.