THE FOLIC ACID COMPLEX 



bacteria of rats in preventing anaemia was provided by Sebrell and 

 his colleagues, ^2 who showed that rats fed a purified diet containing 

 succinylsulphathiazole and subjected to repeated bleeding developed 

 a severe anaemia, which was prevented or cured by the L. casei 

 factor. The effect of the latter was enhanced by /S-pyracin.^^ 



The L. casei factor also corrected a granulocytopenia in rats fed 

 a highly purified diet deficient in riboflavine, although riboflavine 

 itself was ineffective.^* Some of the rats, on the other hand, developed 

 an anaemia that responded erratically to riboflavine, but not to the 

 L. casei factor. The granulocytopenia was also cured by crystalline 

 folic acid. 



Schweigert et al.^^ found that rats fed on a basal dextrin diet with 

 I % of succinylsulphathiazole failed to grow and that the vitamin Be 

 content of the livers decreased, though there was no effect on the 

 riboflavine reserves. Addition of solubilised liver increased the 

 vitamin Be content of the livers 5- to 9-fold. 



Rats with sulphonamide-induced leucopenia and granulocytopenia 

 were also cured by a yeast concentrate, which possessed less than 

 0-4 % of the microbiological activity to be expected from its biological 

 activity.3^ This was enhanced, however, by treatment with acid, 

 alkali or enzyme. The properties of the yeast factor thus resembled 

 those of vitamin Be conjugate. Liver extracts also appeared to 

 contain microbiologically inactive substances that were effective on 

 rats, but they were not activated by treatment with acids, alkalis 

 or enzymes. These substances may represent new forms of L. casei 

 factor. 



According to Wright et al.^'^ the ease with which symptoms of 

 folic acid deficiency develop in rats depends on the nature of the diet. 

 Thus much larger quantities of succinylsulphathiazole (10 to 20 %) 

 had to be added to a diet of powdered milk than to highly purified 

 diets of comparable folic acid content in order to produce folic acid 

 deficiency. They also observed that the folic acid-deficiency syndrome 

 could co-exist with a high faecal elimination of folic acid (page 505). 

 Rats fed exclusively on powdered milk excreted large amounts of 

 folic acid in the faeces, and this was reduced by administration of the 

 sulphonamide. 



Day et al.^^ also reported that folic acid restored the growth rate 

 of rats maintained on a milk diet to which sulphasuxidine had been 

 added, and noted that the sulphonamide brought about a reduction in 

 the number of coliform bacteria in the caecum and in the total bacterial 

 count. These results suggest that the symptoms produced by ad- 

 ministration of siilphonamides are connected with the reduction in 

 the numbers of bacteria in the intestine, and that administration of 

 folic acid in some way reverses this effect. 



488 



