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Vitamin B-6 Deficiency in Germfree Rats¹

Laboratory of Germfree Life Research, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan, Department of Pathology, Aichi Medical College, Nagakute, Aichi-ken, Japan, Department of Biochemistry, Kobe-Gakuin University, School of Nutrition, Kobe, Japan

Germfree and conventional rats were used to investigate the influence of gut microflora upon vitamin B-6 deficiency. The body weights of conventional rats fed a vitamin B-6-deficient diet for more than 5 weeks plateaued, but the rats remained alive until the end of week 9 of deficiency. The body weights of germfree rats fed the same deficient diet decreased, and most of rats were moribund around the end of week 9 of deficiency; three died. Urinary xanthurenic acid excretion following tryptophan load continued to rise at each experimental week in deficient germfree rats, while such a progressive increase in the level of the excretion was not observed in deficient conventional rats. Autopsy revealed that some of deficient germfree rats suffered from partial or total lung atelectasis around week 9 of deficiency, while such lung disorders were not found in deficient conventional rats. The lung atelectasis was presumed to be the result of the respiratory muscle insufficiency which was closely related to the changes of the peripheral nerves innervating these muscles. The results may suggest that the presence of gut microflora made some contribution to improvement of the vitamin B-6 deficiency.

KEY WORDS: • pyridoxine deficiency • germfree animal • microflora

¹ Reported in part at the satellite symposium on the influence of gut microflora on the host's nutrition, Xth International Congress of Nutrition, Kyoto, Japan, August 3–9, 1975.

Manuscript received 13 December 1976.