Abstract
Summary
It has not been possible to interfere with the process of reproduction in female rats on an adequate diet by administering various oxidation products of fats, by mouth, subcutaneously, or intraperitoneally. These products included rancid animal fats, their volatile oxidation products with extremely high peroxide content, the unsaponifiable portion of irradiated fats and some aldehydes. Mortality of the young was very great. Unlike mice, rats were not susceptible to the damaging effect of heptaldehyde on reproduction; unless the mothers succumbed to systemic intoxication they bore litters even with serious lesions at the site of injection. An adequate stock diet (Purina dog chow, finely ground) treated with ethereal ferric chloride supported reproduction in the second generation, indicating that the coupled oxidation of tocopherol in the presence of rancid fats requires adequate contact for an adequate time.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.