274 PYRIDOXINE AND RELATED COMPOUNDS 



vision. The adminisi ration of pyridoxine cured all hut the impairment of 

 eyesight. 



Tryptophan metabolism is abnormal; xanthurenic acid is excreted in the 

 urine.^'^ Fatty livers are often observed in these deficient animals.*^ 



6. Monkeys 



Young rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), weighing 1.5 to 2.0 kg., failed 

 to grow normally when placed on a vitamin Be-free diet.^^ They maintained 

 their initial weight for 9 months; then a marked weight loss occurred. 

 During the depletion period, a hypochromic microcytic anemia developed; 

 nucleated red cells appeared in the blood. ^^^ Hemoglobin values dropped. 

 There was an alteration in ratio of neutrophiles to lymphocytes and a 

 marked polychromatophia developed. The animals were inactive, weak, 

 and very irritable. They lost their appetite; they showed thinning of the 

 fur and some graying of the fur on legs, arms, and back. With pyridoxine 

 administration, growth was resumed and the blood picture improved. In 

 most respects, the deficiency symptoms resembled those observed in swine 

 and dogs. Mushett et alJ'^ observed a similar picture when monkeys were 

 given desoxy pyridoxine. 



Greenberg and Rinehart also investigated the symptoms of vitamin Be 

 deficiency in the monkey. They showed that the deficient monkey excreted 

 xanthurenic acid in the urine. ^** The blood vitamin Be level of fourteen 

 rhesus monkeys fell during the first 2 weeks of the deficiency and remained 

 for one year at a low concentration of 2 to 3 7 per 100 ml. of whole blood. ^^ 

 Control animals receiving 1 mg. of pyridoxine per day had corresponding 

 blood levels of 5 to 20 7. Rinehart and Greenberg^- maintained five im- 

 mature monkeys on a synthetic pyridoxine-deficient diet for 53^2 to 16 

 months. In the early part of the experiment, there was decreased food 

 consumption, gradual weight loss, and diminished \igor. After 5 or 6 

 months, the animals became unkempt, sluggish, and hyperirritable when 

 disturbed. No convulsions occurred. The hair became thinner and lighter; 

 hair growth later ceased. Some animals showed edema of the ej'elids, and 

 most developed "some fissuring of the epithelium of the palms of the hands 

 and feet." All developed a moderate leukopenia and anemia. Sclerotic 

 lesions developed in the arteries of all deficient animals; the condition was 



** G. E. Cartwright, At. M. Wintrobe, I'. Jones, M. Lauritscn, and S. Humphreys, 

 BuU. Johns Hopkins Hosp. 75, 35 (1944). 



89 K. B. McCall, H. A. Waisman, C. A. Elvehjem, and E. S. Jones, ./. Nnlrition 31, 

 685 (1946). 



89a K. J. Poppen, L. D. Greenberg, and J. F. Rinehart, Blood 7, 436 (1952). 



90 L. D. Greenberg and J. V. Rinehart, Federation Froc. 7, 157 (1948). 



91 L. D. Greenberg and J. F. Rinehart, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 70, 20 (1949). 



92 J. F. Rineliart and L. D. Greenberg, Am. J. Pathol. 25, 481 (1949). 



