A study of the nutritional role of anti-oxidants in the diet of the rat

The effectiveness of certain non-tocopherol anti-oxidants in preventing or delaying the appearance of signs of vitamin E deficiency in various species has been demonstrated.These deficiency syndromes include exudative diathesis (Dam, Kruse, Prange & Smdergaard, 195 I) and encephalomalacia (Singsen, Bunnell, Kozeff, Matterson & Jungherr, 1955) in the chick, resorption-gestation in the rat (Dam & Granados, 1952), muscular dystrophy in the rat (Moore, Sharman & Ward, 1954), rabbit (Markees, 1954), calf (Blaxter, Brown, Wood & MacDonald, 1953) and lamb (Draper &Johnson, 1956) and infertility in turkeys (Jensen, Carver & McGinnis, 1956).The anti-oxidants that have been investigated most extensively are methylene blue (MB) and NNIdiphenyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPPD).Whereas it seems clear that the need for tocopherols in the diet is modified by the administration of certain synthetic anti-oxidants, the question of the nutritional dispensability of vitamin E has not been resolved by the experiments cited.The preventive action of non-tocopherol compounds on vitamin E deficiency might accrue either from a conservating effect on the small quantities of tocopherols present in the diet, gut and tissues or from replacement of tocopherols in their physiological role.I n support of a specific metabolic need for tocopherols, Scott, Hill, Norris, Dobson &