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The Effects in Rats of Vitamin B₁₂, with and without Ethyl Alcohol, on Nitrogen Balance, Serum Albumin, Liver Nitrogen and Fat¹

Third (New York University) Medical Division Bellevue Hospital and the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, New York University-Bellevue Medical Center, New York City

Female rats were maintained on a soybean meal diet containing 12% of protein. The effect of supplementing the diet by injecting 7.5 µg of vitamin B₁₂ daily was studied in both ad libitum and paired-feeding experiments. A 15% solution of ethyl alcohol was the only drinking solution for sub-groups of both the vitamin B₁₂-treated and the control rats fed ad libitum.

The rats receiving vitamin B₁₂ and eating the deficient diet ad libitum grew more rapidly, ate more of the diet and retained more nitrogen than their controls. Vitamin B₁₂ was also associated with increased growth, food intake and nitrogen balance in the alcohol treated rats. In the pair-fed rats, vitamin B₁₂ did not significantly increase either growth or nitrogen retention. Caloric intake was essentially the same for the ad libitum rats on the diet alone as for rats on diet plus alcohol. In the rats receiving vitamin B₁₂, the total caloric intake was considerably greater than in the deficient rats and did not differ significantly between the group on vitamin B₁₂ plus water and the group on vitamin B₁₂ plus alcohol. Alcohol per se was associated with decreased growth, food intake and nitrogen balance. In both the paired feeding and the ad libitum experiments, the administration of vitamin B₁₂ was associated with lower levels of liver fat and higher levels of liver nitrogen. Drinking 15% ethanol for the period of the experiment did not further alter the liver composition with respect to total fat and nitrogen. Administration of vitamin B₁₂ led to a decrease in the plasma albumin expressed as percentage of the total plasma proteins in the ad libitum-fed rats. Alcohol further decreased plasma albumin. Total plasma proteins at sacrifice were not affected by any regimen tried; vitamin B₁₂ had no effect on plasma albumin levels of the pair-fed rats.

Adrenal weight per 100 gm of body weight was not affected by the administration of vitamin B₁₂ or alcohol. Adrenal cholesterol was decreased in the ad libitum-fed rats on vitamin B₁₂ regardless of whether or not they had ingested ethyl alcohol. Vitamin B₁₂ did not affect the adrenal cholesterol concentration of the pair-fed rats.

Microscopic sections of the livers from animals treated with vitamin B₁₂ showed much less fat than did the sections from deficient rats. This was also the case when alcohol and vitamin B₁₂ were given.

Manuscript received 14 June 1958.