Abstract
That the feeding of liver to animals produces an enlargement of the thyroid gland was reported by Hunt, 1 who found that the thyroid of mice fed on a diet of oatmeal and liver was larger and more vascular than of those on a diet of eggs, crackers and milk. Marine 2 produced a hyperplasia of the thyroid in brook trout by feeding them with liver and heart. Burget 3 found that rats kept under hygienic conditions and fed a high protein diet, consisting of fresh liver and lean beef mixed with a little oatmeal or bread crumbs, developed a hyperplasia of the thyroid. All the above reports of enlargement of the thyroid were interpreted as due to the high protein diet.
Recently, Remington 4 reported that in a low iodine goiter-producing diet, the replacement of a part of the wheat gluten by dried pig liver aggravated the degree of goiter, while purified casein prevented goiter formation, and yeast had no effect. This led Remington to believe that the liver in his goiter-producing diet was responsible for the enlargement of the thyroid. The writer (Hou 5 ) in the same year reported that rats fed on a soybean-millet diet with dried liver powder as the only source of animal protein developed a marked hypertrophy of the thyroid gland. The enlargement was over 10 times when the animal was fed on the millet and liver diet for over a year. It becomes of great interest to know which constituent or constituents of the diet is or are responsible for the enlargement of the thyroid. The following series of experiments were accordingly carried out.
Albino rats of the Wistar strain were selected with reference to litter mates and sex when about one month old.
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