332 IV. DIGESTION OF LIPIDS OTHER THAN FATS 



The hemorrhagic disease of the newborn is now recognized as a type of 

 alimentary vitamin K deficiency. In this condition, the level of pro- 

 thrombin, although normal at birth, is very low during the early days of 

 life, 554-558 presumably because of the lack of vitamin K in the diet coupled 

 with a failure of vitamin K to be synthesized in the sterile intestinal con- 

 tents, the so-called meconium. Recovery from this condition may be 

 spontaneous when food is taken, probably through the establishment of 

 intestinal flora. 559 ~ 561 



10. The Transport of Carotenoids and of Fat-Soluble Vitamins in 

 Lymph and Blood 



(1) The Transport of Carotenoids in the Lymph and Blood 



Drummond, Bell, and Palmer 562 were able to demonstrate, in a patient 

 with chylothorax, that carotene and vitamin A are carried in the chyle. 

 Although administered vitamin A alcohol could be quantitatively re- 

 covered in the chyle, only 20% of the carotene given could be accounted 

 for. The failure to obtain a quantitative recovery of carotene in the 

 chyle in these tests may be an indication that carotene is partly split in 

 the intestinal wall in the human subject, and that the portion unaccounted 

 for may have been transported in the chyle in the form of vitamin A. 



Proof that carotene is practically completely broken down to vitamin A 

 in the intestine of a number of species of animals has been afforded by the 

 demonstration that no appreciable amount of carotenoid appears in the 

 blood or lymph, even after large doses of ^-carotene have been given. 

 Thus, Thompson and associates 231 reported that no carotene could be 

 found in the systemic or portal blood of pigs or of normal or vitamin A- 

 deficient rats after the feeding of carotene, but that a concomitant in- 

 crease in vitamin A occurred in the lymph. Vitamin A was noted in the 

 mesenteric lymph nodes of pigs shortly after the feeding of carotene, 

 according to Thompson, Ganguly, and Kon. 268 This observation was 

 confirmed by Coates ct al. m in the rat. Woytkiw and Esselbaugh 365 



584 K. M. Brinkhous, H. P. Smith, and E. D. Warner, Am. J. Med. Sci., 1.93, 475-480 

 (1937). 



658 K. Kato and H. G. Poncher, J. Am. Med. Assoc, 114, 749-755 (1940). 

 586 K. K. Nygaard, Acta Obstet. Gynecol. Scand., 19, 361-370 (1939). 



557 C. A. Owen, G. R. Hoffman, S. E. Ziffren, and H. P. Smith, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol 

 Med., 41, 181-185(1939). 



558 A. J. Quick, Wisconsin Med. J., 38, 746 (1939). 



559 A. J. Quick and A. M. Grossman, Am. ./. Med. Sri., 199, 1-9 (1940). 



• r "' A. J. Quick and A. M. Grossman, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., / t l, 227-228 (1939). 



561 A. J. Quick and A. M. Grossman, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 40. 647-648 ( L939). 



562 J. C. Drummond, M. E. Bell, and E. T. Palmer, Brit. Med. J., 1935, I, 1208-1210 



