Tissue Abnormalities in Newborn Rats from Vitamin B 12 Deficient Mothers

Abstract

Conclusions

Female rats deprived of B₁₂, from before the time of mating until the end of gestation, produced deficient and weak progeny. This was shown in weights well below normal and arrested development proportionate to the subnormal weights. The defects involved vascular blocks especially in the liver with consequent passive congestion. The heart and kidneys were immature. Proximal convoluted tubules became blocked and transformed into distended tubules histologically like distal tubules. Spleens showed a loss of primitive reticular cells and transformation into large densely chromatic and pyknotic cells. The origin of the fat by which the liver sinusoids were blocked is not known.