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Pantothenic Acid Requirement of the Growing and Adult Rat¹

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

Six groups of male albino rats, each group consisting of 9 animals, were maintained on diets differing only in pantothenic acid concentrations. The pantothenic acid levels used were: 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, and 10.0 mg of calcium pantothenate per 100 gm of diet.

All animals on the diet without any pantothenic acid supplement developed some signs of deficiency and none of those animals survived 75 days of the experiment. In the supplemented groups, the animals receiving 0.2 mg of calcium pantothenate per 100 gm of diet showed significantly lower weight gains during the first half year of the experiment. Later, the difference gradually diminished until after one year the weight gains of the various groups were practically equal. Starting with the second month of the experiment, the animals receiving 0.8 mg of calcium pantothenate per 100 gm of diet showed slightly higher weight gains than the other supplemented groups. They maintained this lead during the whole experiment; however, this difference was not statistically significant.

The animals on lower levels of pantothenic acid supply acetylated significantly less of the injected sulfonamide than did the animals on higher vitamin levels. It is believed that the optimal level of pantothenic acid needed for acetylation in adult rats lies between 0.8 to 1.0 mg of calcium pantothenate per 100 gm of diet.

Manuscript received 13 July 1956.