The Effect of Vitamin E Deficiency upon Growth

Abstract

Three vitamin E low diets were tested for their efficacy in producing the sterility typical of vitamin E deficiency. The vitamin E in one of the rations was removed by extraction (diet 786) and in the other two by the presence of slightly rancid lard in the diet (diets 427 and 392). All three diets proved to be vitamin E free as evidenced by typical resorption gestations. Daily vaginal smears were made on the rats on these diets. The animals on the low fat diet 786 and the high fat diet 392 with supplements exhibited more irregularities in ovulation frequency than did their sisters on the high fat diet 427 in which the yeast and cod liver oil were incorporated in the diet. The growth of female rats on the three vitamin E low diets was observed. The animals on diet 427 grew more rapidly at the onset, but after 120 days of age the plateaued weights of the three groups were about the same. The individuals in all groups responded to the addition of wheat germ oil to their diets after a plateaued weight had been reached. The growth stimulating factor appeared to be in the nonsaponifiable fraction of the oil, rather than in the fatty acid fraction of the oil. Female rats reared from weaning on a vitamin E low diet (427), stock diet I, and a wheat germ oil containing diet (791), and diet 427 supplemented with wheat germ oil, grew at the same rate until about 145 days, at which time the animals on the vitamin E low diet plateaued in weight while those on the stock diet and the wheat germ oil containing diets continued to grow. The rats reared on diet 427 were sterile; the rats on diet I, diet 791, and diet 427 + wheat germ oil were fertile. The defective growth in experiments involving vitamin E deficiency occurs only after the fourth month of life. Wheat germ oil stimulates growth after a plateaued weight has been reached on a vitamin E low diet.