The effect of pyridoxin deficiency on certain organs of the rat

Some preliminary studies on the histological appearance of certain organs of the pyridoxin-deficient rat have been made.During an attempt to interpret the results of these studies, it was found that conflicting accounts of adrenal changes in pyridoxin deficiency occurred in the literature.Further experiments were undertaken in an attempt to clear up this point and to discover the relative rates at which changes took place in the organs studied. EXPERIMENTALDiets.The three diets employed were all fed ad lib.and were as follows: A, basal purified diet with all vitamin supplements except pyridoxin ; B, basal purified diet with all vitamin supplements; C, normal stock diet of mixed grains, meat, fish, bread and milk.The basal diet and vitamins A, D and E and certain of the B-vitamins (excepting pyridoxin) were given exactly as described by Batchen, Cheesman, Copping & Trusler (1955).No vitamin B,, was given, as it appears to be unnecessary for the growth of pyridoxin-deficient rats (Copping, 1956).A solution of pyridoxin hydrochloride was administered separately at a level of Iopg daily.Of the female rats, two that had been on the pyridoxin-deficient diet for 8 weeks were accidentally given a single dose of Iopg of vitamin B, a fortnight before they were killed.T h e results for these rats differed from those for others of the same group, and special reference will be made to them later.Animals and their treatment.The seventy-two animals used in this experiment were black-and-white hooded rats of the Lister strain from the stock maintained at Queen Elizabeth College.Weanling rats weighing 36-58 g, but of fairly constant weight within the litter, were used.They were put into separate cages when 3 weeks old and fed on one of the two purified diets used.Litter-mates were fed on the laboratory stock diet as controls.Litters of from six to nine animals were used, excepting one litter of three males (which was used to complete the numbers of rats).Litter-mates and sexes were evenly distributed between the groups.Animals were maintained on one of the three diets for periods of 3, 6 or 8 weeks after weaning.Four male and four female rats on each of the three diets were killed after each of these periods.Originally it had been planned that the last twenty-four rats should be killed 9 weeks after weaning, but the rats on the pyridoxin-deficient diet were in such poor condition after 8 weeks' deprivation that their survival for another week was doubtful.