284 PYRIDOXINE AND RELATED COMPOUNDS 



The designation "acrodynia" for the syndrome of experimental pyri- 

 doxine deficiency in rats has been originally proposed without prejudice 

 whether tfie condition in rats is analogous in its etiology with the identically 

 named condition in children. ^"^ The name was chosen only on the basis of 

 the outward similarity of cutaneous manifestations and their distribution 

 in rats with severe vitamin Be deficiency and in human acrodynia. As a 

 matter of fact, the author found pyridoxine without benefit in human ac- 

 rodynia.^**^ However, in contrast to these negative results, beneficial effects 

 from medication with pyridoxine were claimed in human acrodynia by 

 Frontalis®** and Bosc.*^^ The unpredictable and variable course of human 

 acrodynia makes the so-called positive results less convincing than the 

 lack of response in other cases on the same medication. Against Frontali's 

 further claim of lowered Be values in blood in acrodynia and their rise after 

 specific medication, it deserves to be pointed out that the assay methods 

 for Be , especially for blood, are notoriously far from being satisfactory. 



In cases of pellagra, pernicious anemia,^^° and Mediterranean anemia,^^^ 

 a slight increase in the granulocytic series of the white blood cells was ob- 

 served. On the basis of this analogy Cantor and Scott^^'^' ^'^^ have introduced 

 the treatment of agranulocytosis with pyridoxine and claimed striking suc- 

 cess in three cases. These observations were confirmed in agranulocytosis 

 after treatment with thiouraciP'^^ and nitrogen-mustard.^^^ Inconsistent re- 

 sponse was noticed by Taylor^^** in a case of agranulocytosis after treatment 

 with thiouracil. During more recent years, after the successful introduction 

 of intensive antibiotic treatment of agranulocytosis, it became difficult to 

 assess the value of any other possible therapeutic supplements. One gains, 

 however, the impression that the original claims regarding the value of 

 vitamin Be in the treatment of agranulocytosis are shared at the present 

 time by few if any hematologists. 



Experimental vitamin Be deficiency may depress the lymphatic tissue 

 and may also lead to relative lymphocytopenia, especially marked when 

 lack of vitamin Be in the diet is combined with the administration of desoxy- 

 pyridoxine as metabolic antagonist of pyridoxine. ^^^ Gellhorn and Jones^^^ 



1" T. W. Birch, P. Gyorgy, and L. J. Harris, Biochem. J. 29, 2S30 (1935). 



^^^ Quoted bj' Bosc in ref. 169. 



169 R. Rose, Arch.frang. Pediat. 6, 203 (1949). 



"0 R. W. Vilter, H. S. Schiro, and T. D. Spies, Nature 145, 388 (1940). 



1" L. M. Goldman and A. Malvados, /. Clin. Endocrinol. 1, 945 (1941). 



1" M. M. Cantor and J. W. Scott, Science 100, 545 (1944). 



1" M. M. Cantor and J. W. Scott, Can. Med. Assoc. J. 52, 368 (1945). 



"* E. H. Fishherg and J. Vorzimer, Proc. Sac. Exptl. Biol. Med. 60, 181 (1945). 



1" H. Fleischhacker, Le Sang 21, 368 (1950). 



"6 H. Taylor, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. 39, 297 (1945-1946). 



1" H. C. Stoerk, /. Biol. Chem. 171, 4.37 (1947). 



"8 A. Gellhorn and L. O. Jones, Blood 4, 00 (1949). 



