Effect of Various Vitamin Deficiencies on Citric Acid Metabolism in the Rat

Abstract

The effect of various vitamin deficiencies on urinary and tissue citrate levels has been compared with that of vitamin D deficiency. Pantothenic acid and vitamin B₆ deficiencies significantly depressed the levels of urinary, serum, and kidney citrate comparable to those found in vitamin D deficiency. They affected bone citrate only slightly, however, whereas vitamin D deficiency reduced this value greatly. Vitamin A and biotin deficiencies were essentially without effect. Although a severe thiamine deficiency depressed urinary citrate, this apparently was due to inanition, because with a mild though definite thiamine deficiency, as indicated by a reduction in pyruvate oxidation by kidney homogenates, urinary and tissue citrate values were unchanged.