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Diet of Mother and Brain Hemorrhages in Infant Rats¹

Two Figures

Division of Chemistry, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, College Station

Female rats were reared to maturity on a synthetic diet that was deficient in vitamin K. If lard was removed from their diet and the females allowed to bear litters, a high incidence of brain hemorrhages occurred in the offspring. The hemorrhages did not occur when the diet contained either lard or vitamin K.

The incidence of hemorrhage in first litters was 34.5 to 44.17% and in subsequent litters, 73.7%.

Most of the young that died with brain hemorrhages were either born dead or died within 24 hours after birth. A few young in the first litters developed hemorrhages between the eleventh and twenty-first days.

The whole blood coagulation time of females which produced hemorrhagic young and of young with visible hemorrhages was normal. This shows that the prothrombin level was not abnormally low and it is suggested that some substance which acts normally to maintain capillary strength is not synthesized by the body when the diet is low in fat and deficient in vitamin K. An assay with chicks shows that lard may contain a small but insignificant amount of vitamin K.

Manuscript received 5 May 1947.