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The Effects of Inanition and Riboflavin Deficiency upon the Blood Picture of the Rat¹

Department of Physiological Chemistry, School of Medicine, University of Arkansas, Little Rock

Albino and pied rats, 21 days of age, were divided into three groups. One group was given free access to a diet deficient in riboflavin but adequate for good growth with regard to all other nutritive factors. A second group (normal controls) was given the same diet ad libitum supplemented with 120 µg. of riboflavin twice weekly per rat. A third group (inanition controls) was also given 120 µg. of riboflavin twice weekly per rat but the basal diet intake was restricted to amounts approximately equal to those eaten by the deficient animals. Hemoglobin determinations, total erythrocyte and leucocyte counts, and differential counts were made at frequent intervals during the experiment.

The deficient animals exhibited a leucopenia with a relative and absolute decrease in lymphocytes. A relative increase in neutrophils was evident by the third or fourth week on diet. The changes in leucocytes were seen prior to changes in the lens and cornea of the eye. An anemia was found in several of the deficient animals toward the end of the experiment.

Similar changes were found in the number and distribution of leucocytes in the inanition controls; total leucocyte counts were usually lower in these than in the deficient animals. No cataract was observed in the inanition group, and a transient keratitis was seen in only one animal.

These data indicate that the changes in number and distribution of leucocytes in rats receiving a riboflavin-deficient diet are probably the result of inanition.

Manuscript received 15 February 1943.

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