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The Relation of Diet Composition and Vitamin C to Vitamin A Deficiency¹

One Figure

Yale Nutrition Laboratory, Department of Physiological Chemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Rats were maintained on vitamin A deficient diets whose compositions were varied with respect to protein, carbohydrate and fat. The following observations were made:

1. In vitamin A deficient animals, increased levels of dietary protein resulted in decreased efficiency of protein utilization for growth, decreased efficiency of food utilization, decreased survival time, and a general increased severity of the symptoms of vitamin A deficiency.

2. The isocaloric replacement of sucrose by fats afforded an increased protection against development of the syndrome of vitamin A deficiency. This was particularly noticeable with saturated fat (lard).

3. One of the first symptoms of the vitamin A deficiency syndrome was a depletion of the animal’s vitamin C reserves, as evidenced by symptoms resembling scurvy and curable by ascorbic acid, as well as by decreases in the ascorbic acid content of liver, blood and adrenals. Evidence is presented suggesting that at least part of the effects of an increased protein level on vitamin A deficiency is mediated through the concomitant decrease in vitamin C reserve.

² Rockefeller Foundation Fellow.

Manuscript received 23 December 1947.