532 THE TOCOPHEROLS 



established, however, it is but little influenced by prolonged tocopherol 

 therapy, pregnancy, castration, or hormone treatment. Although uterine 

 pigmentation does not appreciable modify the response of the uterus to 

 drugs which act either upon the autonomic nerve supply or as direct muscle 

 stimulants, ^^ or interfere with the course of pregnancy if adequate vitamin 

 E is provided after mating, it may be to some degree responsible for the 

 lowered incidence of fertile matings, due to impaired implantation, and for 

 the increased requirements of successful gestation in long-term E-deficient 



j.ats.2n. 34-36, 98 



There is a remarkable species variation with respect to the response of 

 smooth muscle to vitamin E depletion. In the monkey the pigment changes 

 are especially marked in vascular smooth muscle but occur also in the small 

 intestine, gall bladder, urinary bladder, and bronchi.'^^ Although not ex- 

 tensively studied in other species, the lesions appear to be limited largely 

 to the urinary bladder, ):)lood vessels, and small intestine in hamsters, and 

 to the small intestine in the dog, but are absent in the cotton rat.^^ In the 

 mouse only brownish discoloration of the uterus has been reported.-^ Pig- 

 mentation of smooth muscle has not been observed in association with other 

 lesions of vitamin E deficiency in herbivorous animals or in birds. These 

 findings suggest that from a metabolic standpoint, at least, smooth muscle 

 may differ widely from species to species, and even in different organs of the 

 same species. In avian species, turkey poults show a patch hyaline necrosis 

 of the smooth musculature of the gizzard, with inflammatory reactions and 

 replacement fibrosis, ^^' 1°° as the only recognized manifestation of vitamin 

 E deficiency; similar changes of a milder type have been reported in the 

 chick.i«« 



5. Nervous System 



Studies on the effects of vitamin E deficiency upon the nervous system, 

 based chiefly upon the rat, have given rather controversial results (see re- 

 view by Einarson^"). In rats showing late-lactation paralysis, Lipshutz^^ 

 reported extensive cerebrospinal lesions involving especially the vestibular 

 and tectospinal pathways and dorsal sensory columns, and de Guiterrez-lNIa- 

 honey^-'^ has described rather widespread cellular hyperchromasia and loss 

 of Nissl pattern; other investigators,^-* ■ '^^ however, report no neuropatho- 

 logic changes in such animals. 



Demyelinization and gliosis in dorsal nerve roots and dorsal sensory col- 

 umns (cuneatus and gracilis) of the spinal cord of adult I'ats subjected to 



^8 A. Fuhr, R. E. Johnson, H. Kaunitz, and C. A. Slanetz, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, 



83 (1949). 

 »« E. Jungherr and A. M. Pappenheimer, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 37, 520 (1937). 

 ^"oE. Jungherr, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, 104 (1949). 



