IX. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 655 



A deficiency of zinc^^ appears to produce a similar effect on the color of the 

 hair. Folic acid deficiency induced by sulfonamides has been shown to pro- 

 duce achromotrichia in rats^^' '*^ as well as in other species, and reports have 

 appeared on chromotrichial effects from cystine/^ choline/" biotin,*^ and 

 sodium chloride. ^^ p-Aminobenzoic acid, also, was reported from one labo- 

 ratory to be a chromotrichial agent, ^^' ^' but this finding was not confirmed 

 by other investigators.^^' ^^' ^^' ^^ 



An extremely interesting finding in regard to the graying in pantothenic 

 acid deficiency is that of Ralli and Graef^^ that rapid and diffuse, though 

 somewhat transitory, repigmentation, observable first in the skin and then 

 in the hair, occurs following adrenalectomy. The pigmentation of the skin 

 was even more pronounced in adrenalectomized control animals receiving 

 adequate amounts of pantothenic acid. Injections of desoxy cortisone in- 

 hibited the adrenalectomy-induced melanin deposition."- ^^ Hypophysec- 

 tomy caused an effect similar to removal of the adrenal but less striking. ^^ 

 The significance of these results is not entirely clear. They appear to demon- 

 strate quite convincingly that the adrenal is in some way concerned with 

 melanin production or deposition. It is tempting to conclude further that 

 the achromotrichia of pantothenic acid deficiency is mediated through the 

 adrenal. However, since the initial pigment deposition is greater than nor- 

 mal, since it occurs in supplemented control rats as well as deficient animals, 

 and since the effect is transitory, such a conclusion does not, at this time, 

 appear to be justified. 



d. Nasal Discharge of Porphyrin 



Most of the earlier reports on pantothenic acid deficiency in rats, includ- 

 ing those on studies carried out on "filtrate factor deficiency" before the 

 actual isolation and identification of the vitamin, referred to the accumula- 

 tion of red material around the nose, staining the whiskers and fur, as 

 "nosebleed" or "blood-caked" whiskers. Chick et alP and McElroy and 



*'' F. E. Stirn, C. A. Elvehjem, and E. B. Hart, J. Biol. Chem. 109, 347 (1935). 



^8 G. J. Martin, Proc. Soc. Expil. Biol. Med. 51, 353 (1942). 



" L. D. Wright and A. D. Welch, /. Nutrition 27, 55 (1944). 



6" H. S. Owens, M. Trautman, and E. Woods, Science 93, 502 (1941). 



" E. P. Ralli, D. H. Clarke, and E. Kennedy, J. Biol. Chem. 141, 105 (1941). 



" S. Ansbacher, Science 93, 164 (1941). 



"G.J. Martin and S. Ansbacher, /. Biol. Chem. 138, 441 (1941). 



" G. A. Emerson, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 47, 448 (1941). 



" F. P. Dann, R. C. Moore, and D. V. Frost, Federation Proc. 1, 107 (1942). 



6« E. P. Ralli and I. Graef, Endocrinology 32, 1 (1943). 



" H. J. Spoon and E. P. Ralli, Endocrinology 35, 325 (1944). 



" E. P. Ralli and I. Graef, Endocrinology 37, 252 (1945). 



" E. P. Ralli, Trans. 1st Conf. on Adrenal Cortex, New York, p. 159 (1950). 



