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The Maintenance of Adult Rats on Diets Low in Certain B Vitamins¹

Department of Biochemistry, College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, Madison

1. Rats were raised from weaning to 12 weeks of age on synthetic diets containing 0.1% choline and low, medium, or high amounts of nicotinic acid, thiamine, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and pyridoxine. They were then maintained for periods up to a year on a diet containing all of these vitamins or on diets from which one of them had been omitted.

2. On the diet free of thiamine the rats lost weight and died in 3 to 7 weeks. Most of the adults on the other deficient diets survived for many months. Those deprived of nicotinic acid and choline for a year were comparable in appearance, growth, and survival to rats receiving these vitamins.

3. The rats on the diet free of riboflavin lived 7 to 12 months. They soon ceased to grow but appeared normal for about 4 months on the deficient diet, after which characteristic symptoms of deficiency developed.

4. Half of the rats on the diet free of pantothenic acid survived for 5 months. These rats stopped growing in 1 month and lacked muscle tonus in 2 to 3 months. On autopsy hemorrhagic areas were found in the intestinal tract.

5. Rats grown on a diet containing 60 µg. of pyridoxine per 10 gm. of ration subsequently survived for at least 12 months of maintenance on a diet deficient in this vitamin. Those grown on lesser amounts of pyridoxine lived for an average of 8 months. Growth ceased in 1 month and a general atony developed after 3 months more.

6. It is concluded that adult rats can survive in a reasonably healthy state on very low amounts of certain critical vitamins, and that experiments on the therapeutic value of tolerable nutritional deficiencies are feasible.

Manuscript received 15 November 1943.