Large Amounts Of Vitamin Research Articles

The Ascorbic Acid Content of Blood Plasma of Laying Hens

THE liver, kidney, suprarenals, brain, and other organs of the chick have been found to contain relatively large amounts of vitamin C. Hart, Steenbock, Lepkovsky, and Halpin (1925) reported that 3 grams of liver from a chick maintained on a scorbutic ration for 83 days constituted a curative dose for scorbutic guinea pigs. They also found an abundance of vitamin C in the livers of chicks fed a ration of grains and heated skimmilk. In the same study these investigators found that chicks did not develop scurvy when fed a ration of purified food materials—dextrin, casein, salts, and so forth. The livers from these chicks were a potent source of vitamin C.Carrick and Hauge (1925) found ascorbic acid in the livers and kidneys of cockerels after an extended period of feeding a scorbutic diet. Hauge and Carrick (1926) reported that they found an abundant supply of the antiscorbutic .

Histological Study of Hypervitaminosis D

It has been possible to show by this series of tests that the ingestion by the rat of large amounts of Vitamin D in the form of tuna liver oil or tuna liver oil concentrate will cause calcification of certain tissues.

Treatment of the hemorrhagic tendency in jaundice; with special reference to vitamin k

Evidence has been presented to show that oral administration of a fat soluble vitamin and bile salts will increase the concentration of prothrombin and thereby reduce the clotting time of the blood, as measured by both direct and indirect methods. It appears that the vitamin alone will not accomplish this result if bile is excluded from the intestine, while bile or bile salts have some definite effect, presumably because these substances facilitate absorption of the vitamin which is already present in the intestinal tract. The question naturally arises as to why bile alone cannot be used in the preoperative and postoperative treatment. The first reason is, of course, that the prothrombin time may continue to rise postoperatively, even when bile is flowing freely into the intestine. As Warner, Brinkhous and Smith (23) have shown, the administration of Vitamin K greatly accelerates the restoration of prothrombin in such cases. The second is the inadequate food intake which is common to most jaundiced patients and which may of itself lead to depletion of the amount of Vitamin K in the digestive tract. The third factor has to do with the ability of the liver itself to convert the protective material into prothrombin. There is considerable clinical evidence to show that in the presence of injury of the liver larger amounts of Vitamin K are required to achieve the desired effect. Presumably, the chemical laws governing mass action are operative in this connection. A good deal of future experience will be needed before a definite statement as to the indications for and the limitations of this treatment can be established, but for the present it may be said that it offers considerable hope for the ultimate control of the hemorrhagic diathesis in jaundiced persons.

BLEEDING TENDENCY AND PROTHROMBIN DEFICIENCY IN BILIARY FISTULA DOGS: EFFECT OF FEEDING BILE AND VITAMIN K

In biliary fistula dogs the plasma prothrombin falls eventually to low levels and bleeding commonly occurs. Faulty absorption of vitamin K from the intestine in these animals is an important causative factor. Feeding bile permits absorption of the traces of this vitamin normally present in mixed diets, and as a result a slow rise in prothrombin level is observed. If a standard diet is supplemented with large amounts of vitamin K concentrate the prothrombin rise is rapid, provided bile or bile salt is supplied to aid in the absorption. Variations in the rate of prothrombin depletion in biliary fistula dogs kept on constant diet indicate the existence of additional factors which require further study. Our experience indicates that vitamin A and vitamin D supplements do not correct the prothrombin deficiency in biliary fistula animals.

Nutrition

The Effect of the Administration of Large Amounts of Vitamin A on the Vitamin A Content of the Hen's Egg. E. M. Cruickshank and T. Moore. Biochemical Journal, Vol. 31, 1937, p. 179.The administration of cod liver oil to a laying hen at the rate of 10 per cent. of the diet, which was otherwise low in vitamin ‘A’ and carotene, caused the vitamin ‘A’ content of the eggs, as determined by the antimony trichloride method, to be doubled. The vitamin ‘A’ content of the egg resumed its normal level soon after the withdrawal of the cod liver oil from the diet.

INGESTION OF VITAMINS A, B. C AND D AND POLIOMYELITIS

Some investigators have expressed the opinion that protection against poliomyelitis is a maturation phenomenon. 1 Others have stated the belief that protection bears some relation to the physical make-up of the human being. 2 Some of the histories of cases of poliomyelitis that I have studied suggested a correlation between the lack of certain vitamins and resistance to the disease. 3 It was decided that before experimentation was done with diets deficient in vitamins it would be wise to determine if the feeding of large amounts of vitamins would have any effect on protection. EXPERIMENTS Experiment1.—In September 1933, ten Macacus rhesus monkeys were obtained soon after they had been weaned. Their weights ranged from 900 to 1,020 Gm., and according to the weight tables of Schultz, 4 the monkeys must have averaged approximately from 6 to 7 months of age. From October 4 to 7, five of the animals

The Deterioration of Vitamin D in Aqueous Solutions

The vitamins may be generally grouped into two classes, namely: (1) those soluble in fats and (2) those soluble in aqueous solutions. Vitamins A, D, and E are found nearly exclusively in association with fats, and vitamins B and C with substances soluble in water. The reason for the distribution of vitamins in certain vehicles has not been definitely explained, although it may be readily surmised that specific vitamins probably deteriorate in solutions other than those in which they are found in nature. We have encountered such deterioration of vitamin D when emulsified in water. Shelling and Tidwell prepared oil-in-water emulsions of viosterol, which were miscible in water and in milk. They suggested that such emulsions offered a means by which larger amounts of vitamin D might be added to milk than was possible to impart by direct irradiation of the milk or by feeding vitamin D preparations to the cow. Subsequent clinical experiments revealed that the emulsified oily solutions of vitamin D, when added to milk, were more than 10 times as potent as viosterol in oil, not so treated. Thus, in a study of 134 cases of severe rickets studied by Shelling and Hopper, many of which were partially or entirely refractory to ordinary doses of cod liver oil, at least 20 to 30 drops of viosterol were required to heal the rickets completely in an average time of 3.7 months. On the other hand, with emulsions of viosterol, severe forms of rickets may be healed with as little as 1.5 drops of viosterol (125 Steenbock or 350 International units) in an average time of about 3 months. In the first few months of the experiment, several rachitic children were given the emulsion and healing took place as expected, but after that time healing occurred very slowly and, in some instances, not at all.

Studies of Incurable Rickets. I. Respective Role of the Local Factor and Vitamin D in Healing

ConclusionsThe substitution of strontium for calcium in the rickets-producing diet produces a form of rickets which fails to respond to the very large amounts of vitamin D. The endochondral cartilage of strontium-fed animals both treated and untreated fails to calcify when incubated in artificial serum solution even with a Ca X P product of 60 which produces marked calcification in the endochondral cartilage of control rachitic rats. These observations strongly suggest an injurious effect of strontium upon the “local factor” in the hypertrophic cartilage of the provisional zone of calcification which brings about calcification at this area when conditions in the serum are favorable. The ability of vitamin D to cause an increase of the Ca X P even when healing does not take place, implies that this raising of the product is the function of the antirachitic vitamin in the cure of rickets.This communication reports a type of incurable rickets caused by the substitution of 3% SrCO3 for 3% CaCO3 in a rickets-p...

A Simple Method for Production of Vitamin D Milk of Known and Controllable Potency

Since the introduction of irradiated ergosterol and irradiated foods for the prevention and treatment of rickets, several methods have been employed in order to impart anti-rachitic properties to milk. Among these may be mentioned: (1) the irradiation of milk in both the powdered and liquid forms; (2) irradiation of the cow; and, (3) feeding to the cow substances containing large amounts of vitamin D, as for example cod liver oil or irradiated yeast. The irradiation of the cow as a means of imparting vitamin D to the milk is obviously most impractical from the commercial point of view, as is also the feeding of large amounts of cod liver oil. The irradiation of the milk itself has the practical disadvantage of being expensive since it involves the installation, maintenance and operation of expensive apparatus in the farm or dairy where it is employed. The direct irradiation of the milk and the indirect method of feeding irradiated yeast to the cow both have the disadvantage that they are not absolutely re...

Dietary Requirements for Fertility and Lactation. XXV. Does Amount of Fat in Diet Influence Vitamin B Requirements for Lactation?

The experimental data presented by Evans and Lepkovsky1 in support of the thesis that fat produces a sparing action on vitamin B suggested an attempt to determine whether increasing amounts of fat in the ration would influence the incidence of infant mortality on a maternal diet deficient only in vitamin B or the vitamin B complex. The lactation efficiency index was studied on rations containing 3 levels of fat intake, namely 10, 20, and 30. The fat used was lard. Two types of yeast were used as a source of vitamin B complex for the control diets, i. e. Northwestern dehydrated, and Fleischman's dried.† The same types of yeast, autoclaved, were used as a source of vitamin G for the pathological animals. Of the former 10% was used in the ration and of the latter, 15%. A total of 72 mothers with litters were employed. It was realized that, because of the large amounts of vitamin B required for lactation compared with that for growth, nothing like normal rearing of young could be anticipated by virtue of such...

The Effect of Vitamin Feeding on the Growth of Cancer.

Cramer states that the removal of one or the other of the vitamins from the diet of animals with transplanted and growing tumors has little or no effect on the growth of the tumors. The animal alone suffers from the deficiency. We have noted a similar result excepting when very large doses of vitamin B are given in a diet deficient in vitamin A. Rats inoculated with the Jensen sarcoma were used for these experiments. Rats given very large doses of vitamin B in a diet deficient in vitamin A suffered a marked anemia with a rapid disappearance of the tumor in a few cases and an early death of the rats in most cases. Tumors in two men broke down with this diet much the same as with X-rays. The tumors were lip cancers metastasizing to the neck. These patients also suffered marked anemia and it was necessary to stop the treatment after a short time, not only on account of the anemia, but because of a developing parenchymatous nephritis. Quite different from the animals, men with malignant tumors have responded more readily to small changes in the vitamin A content of the diet. A man with a melanoma arising from a birthmark on his head and a large mass of metastases on one side of his neck, recovered from his cachexia and anemia completely after six weeks, and worked hard during the next four months, maintaining his nutrition and suffering no extension of his tumor. The diet he received contained a large amount of vitamin A and a moderate amount of vitamin B. He left us at this time and a competent diagnostician thought the tumor was not malignant on account of the patient's good physical condition. He removed the tumor with eventual disaster.