The Dietary Production of Dystrophy of the Voluntary Muscles. ∗

Abstract

Vitamin E has been shown by Evans, Bishop, and their coworkers 1 , 2 , 3 to be necessary for normal reproduction in the rat, and by Beard, 4 in the mouse. This investigation was begun in order to study the effect of an E-free diet on the guinea pig; and as the problem of feeding these animals simplified diets, such as are ordinarily used in vitamin E experiments, was rather a difficult one, it was decided to use instead, a natural food diet, in which the vitamin E had been destroyed by treatment with ethereal ferric chloride, a method discovered by Waddell and Steenbock. 5 When guinea pigs were reared on this diet, they stopped growing after 1 to 2 months, maintained a constant weight for another month, rapidly declined for 2 or 3 days, and suddenly died. The oestrus rhythm was found to be normal but further studies upon reproduction were impossible. Upon autopsy, these animals showed marked macroscopic changes in the skeletal muscles throughout the body.

The diet was prepared as follows:

The ingredients were shaken in a closed container with 10 gm. of ferric chloride, U.S.P. lump, that had been taken up in about 125 cc of ether and a little water, and the mixture set aside. After half an hour, the contents were transferred to a tray and the ether allowed to evaporate. Then there was added:

Skimmed Milk Powder (Merrell Soule) 275 parts.

Each guinea pig was given daily by pipette 3 cc. of orange juice, to protect it from scurvy.

Rats, both male and female, reared upon this diet, gave symptoms that were typical of vitamin E deprivation; and the females were cured after true resorption of the embryos by transferring them to a diet, similar in all respects except that the ethereal ferric chloride treatment had been eliminated.