Nucleic Acid Metabolism in Vitamin E Deficiency

Abstract

Publisher Summary Certain aspects of the pathology of vitamin E deficiency suggest that nucleic acid metabolism may be deranged. In tissues severely affected by the deficiency one sees various nuclear changes. These include an increase in numbers of nuclei in rabbit skeletal muscle, appearance of giant multinucleated cells in rat testes (Mason, 1933), and the appearance of many multinucleated erythroid precursors in vitamin E-deficient monkey bone marrow (Porter el al., 1962). It is of course well known that these tissues are dramatically affected by vitamin E deficiency in the various species. In the rabbit one sees nutritional muscular dystrophy, in the male rat sterility, and in the monkey macrocytic anemia. Authors investigated the influence of vitamin E deficiency on tissue nucleic acid concentrations in these species and on the synthesis of nucleic acids as measured by the incorporation of various radioactive precursors.