Abstract
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATORS have shown that prolonged inanition in the experimental animal is accompanied by morphological alterations in the thyroid gland, characterized by atrophy, involution and degeneration (1, 2). Myers (3) and Stefko (4) have described similar changes in man in undemutrition. More recently Rabinovitch (5) has described the thyroid of guinea pigs fed an inadequate diet resulting in the loss of 20 to 30% of their weight in 9 to 11 days. In such animals there was almost complete cessation of proliferative activity, the acinar epithelium was flattened and the colloid was hard and dense. There is some evidence (6, 7) that certain of the vitamin deficiencies may result in structural changes in the thyroid similar to those which have been described in inanition. The present investigation, in which the observations of Rabinovitch have been confirmed, is concerned chiefly with two aspects of the problem:
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