Effect of Riboflavin and Pteroylglutamic Acid on Growth and White Cell Production of Rats. ∗

Abstract

Summary

Weanling albino rats were fed a standard purified diet, a similar diet with 10% glycine replacing an equal amount of sucrose, and a diet with 10% glycine and 2% choline replacing an equal amount of sucrose. Other groups received these diets supplemented with 100 γ of riboflavin per day or 100 γ of riboflavin and 100 γ of PGA per day. The growth of the rats receiving the high glycine and high glycine plus high choline diets was greatly reduced as compared to the basal group. Supplementation of these diets with riboflavin brought about no effect on the growth; the combination of riboflavin and PGA overcame the growth depression to a considerable extent and also brought about a marked increase in gain per unit of food consumed. Supplementing the various diets with both riboflavin and PGA brought about a leucocytosis which was very marked when the diet contained a high level of both glycine and choline. The data would suggest that there is an interrelationship between riboflavin and PGA in white cell production.