Relationship Between Vitamin E and Dietary Minerals in Mouse “Paralysis”. ∗

Abstract

Summary

1. Typical symptoms of “paralysis” occur in C₃H male mice when wheat germ oil is removed from the diet made with a modified Osborne-Mendel salt mixture but not when the diet is made with a modified Jones-Foster mixture. 2. The same symptoms develop when ferric iron is replaced by ferrous iron in the modified Osborne-Mendel mixture even though wheat germ oil is present in the diet. 3. Although the observed “paralysis” is apparently identical with that seen by several investigators in other species of mammal in association with vitamin E deficiency, the fact that the mineral content of the diet determines the character of the manifestations of such vitamin deficiency raises questions concerning the mechanism of the effects which are still unanswered.