Effect of Pantothenic Acid Deficiency upon Adrenal Cortex, Thymus, Spleen, and Circulating Lymphocytes in Mice.

Abstract

Adult male mice placed on pantothenate-deficient diet developed a lymphopenia followed by lymphocytosis. The adrenal cortex showed hypertrophy and simultaneous, gradual depletion of lipid material, including ketosteroids, from the zona fasciculata, until by the 7th week depletion of its hormone was nearly complete. The thymus atrophied and the spleen gradually enlarged. Starvation caused rapid depletion of lipid, including the ketosteroids, from the zona fasciculata. In pantothenic acid deficiency the zona glomerulosa remained unchanged; in starvation it was depleted of steroid material but retained some Sudanophilic lipids.