EFFECT OF DEFICIENCY IN ANIMALS 



12. G. Kitzes, H. A. Schuette and C. A. Elvehjem, /. Nutrition, 1943, 



26, 241. 



13. P. B. Pearson, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 1942, 51, 291. 



14. E. A. M. Bradford and E. B. Hughes, Analyst, 1945, 70, 2. 



8. EFFECT OF PANTOTHENIC ACID DEFICIENCY 

 IN ANI2VIALS 



Effect on Skin and Hair of Rats 



Although the first symptom to be associated with pantothenic acid 

 deficiency was the development of dermatitis in chicks/' ^ a connec- 

 tion between pantothenic acid deficiency and pigment formation in 

 the hair of black or piebald rats was recognised even before the structure 

 of the " filtrate factor " was known. Thus Oleson et al.,^ Mohammad 

 et al.^ and Chick et al.^ observed that a " filtrate factor " concentrate 

 prevented the greying of hair (achromotrichia) induced in rats by 

 feeding a purified diet, whilst G. Lunde and H. Kringstad ^ showed 

 that grey hair in foxes could similarly be prevented by administration 

 of a concentrate containing an alkali-labile factor, which they called 

 vitamin Ba;. 



This ability to prevent grey hair in rats was also possessed by a 

 preparation containing 40 to 50 % of pantothenic acid ''' ^ and by 

 pure pantothenic acid.®' ^^ The growth rate of the animals was also 

 increased by the addition of the vitamin to the diet. Gyorgy et al.'^' ^ 

 stated that pantothenic acid was not the only member of the vitamin 

 B complex that could cure achromotrichia, and suggested that biotin 

 might have a similar effect. As will be seen subsequently _/)-amino- 

 benzoic acid (page 551), folic acid (page 487) and inositol (page 572) 

 are also capable under certain conditions of preventing grey hair in rats. 



According to G. A. Emerson and H. M. Evans, ^^ and to P. L. 

 Pavcek and H. M. Baum,^^ pantothenic acid did not restore the fur of 

 rats to its original state, but resulted in stippling. Inositol did not 

 improve the condition further,^^ but administration of cystine ^^ 

 resulted in complete recovery. According to R. R. Williams, ^^ 

 pantothenic acid did not cure achromotrichia, but this extreme view 

 does not appear to have received support from other workers. Rusti- 

 ness could be produced in the fur of albino rats by the omission of 

 pantothenic acid and choline from the diet, and the condition was 

 prevented by giving pantothenic acid with choline, an observation of 

 considerable significance in the light of more recent work on the 

 function of pantothenic acid (see page 391). 



D. W. Woolley ^* observed that pantothenic acid cured hairlessness 

 (alopecia) in mice, induced by feeding certain purified diets ; this, 

 like achromotrichia, is a condition associated with other members of 



365 



