Formation of Fluorescent Pigment in Vitamin E Deficiency

The brown discoloration of the uterus which occurs in rats deprived of vitamin E was first described by Martin & Moore (1936).Later (1938) they reported that prolonged deficiency caused some degree of discoloration also in the skeletal muscles throughout the body, and particularly in the hind legs, which frequently became paralysed.The brown colour, therefore, appeared to be associated with the muscular dystrophy described by Ringsted (1935) and others, although there was some evidence that the process was not confined to muscular tissues, Thus, it was noticed that certain lymph nodes became decidedly brown.Histological examinations of the brown uterus revealed that the degenerated muscle cells were filled with small yellow granules (Barrie,