INTERRELATED VITAMIN REQUIREMENTS: KIDNEY DAMAGE, ADRENAL HEMORRHAGE AND CARDIAC FAILURE CORRELATED WITH INADEQUACY OF PANTOTHENIC ACID1

Abstract

Pantothenic acid deficiency in white rats is characterized by damage to the adrenal cortex manifested by hemorrhagic degeneration, atrophy and necrosis. Renal damage and acute cardiac hemorrhage may also result from such deficiency; the latter has been noted particularly in young animals receiving a low pantothenic acid intake. Dehydration of muscular tissue and abdominal cavity was frequently noted in both young and mature animals deprived of the factor. Mature animals deprived of pantothenic acid following a low intake during development voluntarily consumed about twice as much sodium as sodium chloride as did animals of the same wt. not deprived of this factor; this is considered indicative of adrenal function impairment due to pantothenic acid impoverishment. Objective evidence of pantothenic acid deficiency is characterized by slow growth rate, inanition suggestive of exhaustion and frequently sudden death without objective symptoms of impending collapse; a "bloody" exudate at the nostril is also frequently noted.