The physiological function of vitamin B1

Abstract

The requirement of vitamin B1 for young growing rats was found to be independent of the protein/ carbohydrate ratio of the diet, and of the nature of carbohydrate in the diet,[long dash]glucose, fructose, sucrose or maltose. With galactose and lactose as sole sources ofcarbohydrate the animals declined in weight. Regarding the requirement of vitamin B1 as related to the dietary fat, palm kernel oil and olive oil had little sparing action on the vitamin while lard appeared to have a definite effect. The ingestion of sodium lactate did not appreciably hasten the appearance of symptoms in vitamin B1-deficient rats. The pH of the urine of animals receiving lactate plus vitamin B1 was higher than that of animals receiving lactate minus vitamin B1. The lethal dose of injected sodium lactate was lower for deficient animals than for normal ones. The cytochrome content of the liver, kidney, brain and heart muscle tissues of rats was not diminished in vitamin B1 deficiency. The mechanism for the oxidation of lactic acid by the liver and brain tissues of deficient rats appeared to remain fairly efficient.