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Effect of Vitamin B Deficiency on Heat Production of the Rat¹

Institute of Animal Nutrition, Pennsylvania State College

A series of twenty comparisons was made of the heat production of rats on vitamin B(B₁) deficient and vitamin B supplemented diets. The rats were fed by the paired method, and heat measurements were made by the open-train Haldane procedure, at intervals during an experimental period of 12 weeks. The heat production of the B deficient rats was significantly the lower during the first 7 weeks, but in the course of the last 5 weeks the heat measurements representing the two dietary treatments became essentially alike, apparently as a result of an increase in the quantity of autoclaved yeast fed to both groups.

A second series of twenty comparisons, with the technic modified to test critically the results of the first series, definitely established a reduced heat production in the vitamin B deficient rats. Reversal of treatment of paired rats produced reversal in the relative rates of heat production by the deficient and supplemented rats.

Evidence serving to supplement and to confirm the previous findings of McClure, Voris and Forbes is also presented, especially as indicating that with the B supplemented rats a larger proportion of the ration was metabolizable; there was a more favorable body balance of energy; there was less energy and a lower proportion of carbon to nitrogen in the urine; and of the digested nitrogen a larger proportion was retained as body gain.

Manuscript received 8 February 1937.