Vitamin E and Length of Life of Rats Fed a Diet with Fatally Low Protein Content. ∗

Abstract

The experiments reported here were originally planned as part of an investigation designed to determine whether a condition simulating exudative diathesis could be induced in rats fed with a vitamin E-deficient diet. The exudative diathesis occurs in chicks when the diet is deficient in vitamin E and contains highly unsaturated fatty acids, such as those provided by cod liver oil, and, within certain limits, can be accelerated by a high carbohydrate-low protein ratio in the diet. 1 Since it is also known from clinical medicine that a tendency to edema is enhanced when the diet is high in carbohydrate and low in protein, it was thought that a drastic change of the vitamin E-deficient diet in this same direction might precipitate similar symptoms in rats. Although no condition resembling exudative diathesis occurred in these animals it was observed that adequancy of vitamin E enabled the rates to survive longer on the protein-insufficient diet than was the case when the diet was also lacking in vitamin E. Although further study of this problem is not immediately contemplated it seems worth-while reporting the experimental data since the results may offer some additional suggestions concerning the physiological functions of vitamin E.

Procedure. Groups of 6 newly weaned rats equally distributed according to weight in the non-E and E groups were given the following diet, with or without the addition of 10 mg % d,1-alpha-tocopherol acetate:† alcohol-extracted casein 20 g, ether-extracted yeast^δ 10 g, sucrose 63 g, McColllum's salt mixture No. 185 7 g, diacetate of 2-methyl-1,4-naphthohydroquinone 1 mg, cod liver oil 5 g. After a given number of days the casein was removed from the diet and replaced by a corresponding amount of sucrose. The animals were kept on this diet until they died.