Effect of Pyridoxine Deficiency on Lipid Metabolism in the Chick

MANY reports in the literature indicate that pyridoxine deficiency induces hypercholesterolemia in several species of animals. Rhesus monkeys developed significantly higher serum cholesterol levels when fed a pyridoxine deficient diet supplemented with cholesterol than when fed a pyridoxine adequate diet with added cholesterol (Greenberg and Rinehart, 1951). In rats, pyridoxine deficiency induced a significant degree of hypercholesterolemia (Goswami and Sadhu, 1961) and in chicks, plasma cholesterol was significantly higher when they were fed a pyridoxine deficient diet than when they were fed a pyridoxine adequate diet (Dam et al., 1958). Pyridoxine deficiency in rats enhanced the incorporation of labeled acetate into liver cholesterol and this condition could be reversed by injections of pyridoxine (Shah et al., 1960). Greater incorporation of acetate-2-C14 by pyridoxine deficient rats was not a result of restricted growth or food intake caused by the deficiency (Williams and Pertel, 1964). Witten and Holman (1952) were the first . . .