Vitamin B Deprivation 



537 



268 (2228) 



The effect of fasting and of vitamin B deprivation on the chemi- 

 cal composition of rats' blood. 



By H. A. MATTILL. 



[From the Department of Physiology, University of Rochester, 

 Rochester, New York.] 



The recent publication of data on the blood of pigeons m 

 polyneuritis and stavation 1 suggested the desirability of publish- 

 ing the data obtained on rats under similar conditions. The 

 preliminary report 2 on the influence of fasting and of vitamin 

 B starvation has been amplified and data have also been obtained 

 on fasting rats to whom water (10 to 21 c.c. daily) was admin- 

 istered by stomach tube during the last days of the fast. Total 

 solids were determined by an adaptation of Peters' method 3 

 and the other constituents by the methods of Folin and Wu. 4 



From the summary given in the table it is apparent that the 

 non-protein nitrogen of the blood of fasting rats is 30-40 per 

 cent higher than that of normal animals, the increase being prac- 

 tically all in the urea fraction. Total dry matter, creatinine 

 and creatine are slightly increased. Fasting rats that are given 

 water per os during the last few days of their fast show normal 

 values for non-protein nitrogen and solids. The blood of rats 

 deprived of vitamin B also gives figures that are normal except 

 that creatinine is at the fasting level and creatine slightly higher 

 than the fasting figure; these differences have little if any sig- 

 nificance in the present state of uncertainty with regard to blood 

 creatine and creatinine determinations. Deprivation of vitamin 

 B in contrast to fasting is not accompanied by an accumulation 

 of nitrogenous end-products in the blood; whatever the ultimate 

 cause of this increase may be in fasting, it is prevented by ad- 

 ministration of water. The commonly observed disinclination 

 of fasting animals to drink water was first shown by Bang'' to 



l Palmer, L. S., and Hoffman, C. T., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 

 1922, xx, 118. 



2Mattill, H. A., Science, 1921, liv, 176. 



3 Peters, A. W., J. Biol. Chem., 1919, xxxix, 285. 



4 Folin, O., .and Wu, H., J. Biol Chem., 1919, xxxviii, 91. 



5 Bang, I., Biochem. Z., 1916, lxxii, 119. 



