Abstract
In this study we have employed 25 animals transferred from our stock diet No. 2 1 to Steenbock and Black ricketic ration No. 2965. 2 Thirteen of these rats, which served as controls, received the same diets supplemented with vitamin D. The latter was supplied either by irradiation of that ration or by the addition of 6 drops of cod liver oil daily per animal. At the end of the experiment a line test 3 was made on each animal.
Five out of the 13 animals showed absolutely normal calcification. The rest of the 8 controls showed a slight deviation from normal calcification, and yet could not be considered as cases of even mild rickets, judging from the line tests. Exposing some of these animals to light did not improve their calcification, because we encountered better calcification on some animals that received the irradiated ration and cod liver oil in the dark. We found only 2 cases out of 12 with severe rickets, the other 10 showing a narrow line of calcification which places them in a group of moderate rickets, as evidenced by the line tests.
An analysis of our data shows that there are no demonstrable changes in true blood sugar, alkaline reserve, or glycogen content of the liver in moderate or severe rickets, after a comparison is made between ricketic and control animals. The liver glycogen is higher than in our animals depleted of vitamin A, the average figure for the control being over 200 mg. expressed as glucose per 100 gm.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.