EFFECT OF THIAMIN DEFICIENCY AND CONTROLLED INANITION ON OVARIAN FUNCTION

Abstract

Normal [female]2 rats placed on a diet adequate in all respects except for the absence of thiamin, rapidly lost weight as a result of reduced food intake. The estrous cycles ceased within 16-24 days. The ovaries were significantly smaller than normal although only slight histological changes were found. Another group of rats given the same diet, but in quantities comparable to those consumed by the thiamin-deficient rats, showed the same response in spite of adequate thiamin adm. The ovarian hypofunction and the resultant anestrous in the thiamin-deficient rats apparently were caused, not by the thiamin deficiency alone, but by the concomitant inanition. In both the thiamin-deficient rats and their inanition controls the ovaries responded to adm. of a gonadotrophic substance, indicating that diminished gonadotrophic function of the pituitary was the primary cause of the ovarian hypofunction and the persistent diestrous. The wts. of the thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal were not significantly altered by the exptl. procedure.