A study of the nutritional role of anti-oxidants in the diet of the rat

Abstract

Six groups of 10 weanling female rats were fed a vitamin E-low purified diet supplemented as follows: group (l)-0.7 mg D-[alpha]-tocopheryl acetate/week, (2)-0.7 mg DL.-[alpha]-tocopheryl acetate/ week; (3)-0.4 mg NN1-diphenyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPPD)/week; (4)-0.1% methylene blue; (5.)-0.1% DPPD reduced in second and third reproductive cycles to 0.025% and 0.0025% respectively; (6)- no supplement. All females were carried through at least 2 reproductive cycles. Supplementation of the low-vitamin E diets with DPPD or methylene blue sustained reproductivity through 2 reproductive cycles; further, females showing reproductive failure after receiving the basal diet through growth and one breeding cycle could be partially restored by supplementation with DPPD. The effectiveness of DPPD was, however, partly modified by its toxicity. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was non-toxic, but not give the regenerative response in reproduction noted for DPPD. It is suggested that the requirement for vitamin E by the rat is largely a need for a biologically active anti-oxidant, and that because of the different response to BHT and DPPD, a high order of compound specificity may be involved.