Nutritional Dermatoses in the Rat

Abstract

When young rats were fed a diet deficient only in vitamin A insofar as it is now possible to concoct such a ration, there resulted a deficiency disease, the gross cutaneous signs of which differed from the previously accepted descriptions of vitamin A deficiency. Complicating deficiencies of the vitamin B complex, fat and essential fatty acids were responsible for cutaneous alterations which resulted in the misrepresentation of the vitamin A deficiency syndrome. The data obtained in this study indicate that the diets used hitherto for producing vitamin A deficiency in rats and the current United States Pharmacopoeia vitamin A assay diet should be revised when the objective is to obtain the picture of the uncomplicated deficiency.