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Journal of Nutrition Vol. 97 No. 3 March 1969, pp. 409-418
Copyright © 1969 by American Society for Nutrition
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Biochemical Constituents of the Dura Mater in Vitamin a Deficiency1

R. J. Cousins2, H. D. Eaton, J. E. Rousseau, Jr. and R. C. Hall, Jr.

Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, and Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut

Twenty-three male Holstein calves were fed a vitamin A-depletion ration, plus either 4, 12, 36 or 108 µg vitamin A/kg of live weight per day, for 16 consecutive weeks. Feed intake was not significantly different and growth was slightly less in those calves fed the 4 and 12 µg intakes. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure of those animals fed the two lower intakes was elevated and inversely proportional to vitamin A intake. The tentorium cerebelli region of the dura mater, where arachnoid villi considered to be a site of CSF bulk absorption are abundant, was excised and analyzed. No significant differences were found in weight, dry matter or hydroxyproline content. Two distinct mucopolysaccharide-peptide complexes were isolated and separated on DEAE-Sephadex columns. The uronic acid content of both fractions was increased in dura tissue from the calves receiving the 4 and 12 µg intakes and inversely related to vitamin A intake. Total DNA content was not changed; however, total RNA and the ratio of RNA to DNA were greater in the tissue of those calves fed the two lower levels of vitamin A, and the magnitude of the response was inversely related to intake. It was postulated that the overproduction of the mucopolysaccharide moiety of the intercellular connective tissue matrix in the cerebral dura mater may be responsible either directly or indirectly for the increased resistance to bulk CSF absorption occurring in hypovitaminosis A.

1 Scientific Contribution no. 339, Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Supported in part by National Institutes of Health Training Grant no. GM 1199 and Public Health Service Research Grant no. NB-02108 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness.

2 Present address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

Manuscript received 7 October 1968.




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