Pantothenic Acid Studies IX. The Influence of Dietary Pantothenic Acid upon a Pantothenic Acid Conjugate (PAC) in Rat Tissues ,

Abstract

Albino rats on a pantothenic acid-deficient diet developed pronounced deficiency symptoms over an 8- to 9-week period. Assay of the brain, liver, kidney, heart and skeletal muscle of deficient and control animals revealed that the content of both free and bound pantothenic acid had diminished during this period. Free pantothenic acid, as measured directly by L. arabinosus, represented only 3 to 16% of the total pantothenic acid content of the various tissues in control animals; however, the proportion of the free vitamin was even less in the deficient animals. From 47 to 90% of the free vitamin was lost during depletion of the animals, whereas the decreases in the conjugated forms (measured by A. suboxydans) ranged from 26 to 45%. A significant portion of the bound pantothenic acid in rat tissues was found to exist in non-dialyzable form. In the controls this proportion ranged from 20 to 37% and in the deficient animals from 24 to 57%. The active principle remaining after dialysis was not active in the acetylation of sulfanilamide, and it was considered that this represented the conjugate (PAC) recently described in this laboratory. It was concluded that PAC may be regarded as an important form of pantothenic acid for the rat. Dietary glutamic acid deficiency has no effect upon the amounts of the free or conjugated forms of pantothenic acid in rat tissues.