Journal of Nutrition Vol. 60 No. 1 September 1956, pp. 75-85
Copyright © 1956 by American Society for Nutrition
The Relation of Dietary Supplements and Tissue Metabolites to Glycine Toxicity in the Chick1
Edward C. Naber2,
W. W. Cravens3,
C. A. Baumann and
H. R. Bird
Departments of Biochemistry and Poultry Husbandry, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- 1. Although symptoms of glycine toxicity in chicks were prevented by folacin, dietary glycine failed to depress the folacin content of the tissues, nor did folacin depress the level of glycine in the blood. Liver glycogen was depressed by glycine and elevated by folacin; blood glucose, uric acid, calcium and p-hydroxphenyl compounds were unaffected by either.
- 2. Unsuccessful attempts to simulate glycine toxicity with possible metabolites included the administration of oxalic acid and glyoxylic acid, while the simultaneous feeding of glycine and formate failed to alter the course of glycine toxicity. The feeding of methionine and arginine minimized the symptoms but failed to restore growth.
- 3. Serine was inocuous at levels equivalent to those that produced glycine toxicity. Tyrosine and alanine depressed growth without correction by folacin. Preliminary evidence suggested that high levels of riboflavin might aggravate the the symptoms of glycine toxicity.
1 Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.
2 Present Address: Department of Poultry Husbandry, Clemson Agricultural College, Clemson, South Carolina.
3 Present Address: McMillen Feed Mills, Decatur, Indiana.
Manuscript received 6 April 1956.