Vitamin B6 and Cholesterol Metabolism in the Chick

CONSIDERABLE evidence has been presented during the past few years indicating that vitamin B6 is involved in various aspects of lipid metabolism, particularly in the metabolism of cholesterol and the essential fatty acids. The first indication of a possible relationship between vitamin B6 and lipid metabolism was presented by Birch and Gyorgy (1936), who observed that highly unsaturated fat alleviated cutaneous manifestations of vitamin B6 deficiency in the rat. Since then, several studies have shown that the feeding of fat ameliorates the development of vitamin B6 deficiency. Williams and Cohen (1957) demonstrated that levels of dietary cottonseed or coconut oil above 5% had no effect on the development of vitamin B6 deficiency in male weanling rats in a period of three weeks when the protein to energy ratio was constant. When the ratio was decreased, the 40 percent cottonseed oil diet permitted slightly better growth, but the difference was not …