Abstract
In a previous paper, 1 it was shown that a single dose of 0.5-5.0 mg of alpha-tocopherol administered on the 15th day of life to rats born of mothers on an E-deficient diet, and maintained after weaning upon vitamin E low diet, produced a significant delay in postpuberal degeneration of the testis. Similar doses given on the 5th day, or on the 28-30th day, were less effective than when given on the 15th day.
This paper is concerned with the effect of larger single doses, either given to the young directly, or through the mother's milk.
Experiment I. The mother was a third generation rat on E-deficient diet, 10 mg of alpha-tocopherol acetate having been given at the beginning of each pregnancy. Litter H2 was the second litter; the first litter of 7 young did not survive 4 days. The young of H2 were given 1 drop (25.6 mg each) of alpha-tocopherol acetate on the 15th day of lactation. Semi-castration was performed when they were 107 days old, and they were killed on the 182nd day. Repeated fertility tests were made by mating the rats with females which had been kept on a stock diet. During the mating period, male and female had access only to vitamin E-deficient diet. The birth of a litter was considered a positive test.
Experiment II. Each suckling rat of a second litter was given 51,2 mg of alphatocopherol acetate on the 15th day. The mother was again a third generation rat on E-deficient diet. The results are summarized in Table II.
From previous data, it has been found that the average weight of one testis in untreated animals under otherwise identical experimental conditions is as follows:
At 75 days, 2 of the 36 untreated control rats had motile sperm, but no positive mating was obtained.
It is apparent that the single dose received on the 15th day of life has exerted a prolonged delaying effect upon testicular degeneration.
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