Pantothenic acid deficiency effect

Pantothenic acid deficiency in black and brown rats leads to a loss of fur color - at one time, pantothenic acid was known as the antigray hair factor. There is no evidence that the normal graying of hair with age is related to pantothenic acid nutrition, nor that pantothenic acid supplements have any effect on hair color. 

Tokuyama, T, Kuraishi, H., Aida, K., Uemura, T. (1973) Hydrogen sulfide evolution due to a pantothenic acid deficiency in the yeast requiring this vitamin, with special reference to the effect of adenosine triphosphate on yeast cysteine desulfhyrase. Journal of General and Applied Microbiology, 19, 439 66. 

Faber et al. (FI) studied the effects of induced pyridoxine and pantothenic acid deficiency, obtained by use of a semisynthetic formula and deoxypyridoxine and co-methyl pantothenic acid supplements for six weeks, by determining in 5 men nitrogen retention and the urinary excretions of xanthurenic and oxalic acids during deficiency and recovery. They postulated that tissue catabolism releases suflBcient pyri-doxine to partially metabolize a tryptophan load, after which the amounts of urinary oxalic acid were sharply increased for 1-2 days. 

Adverse effects, sometimes fatal, have been reported in patients taking calcium hopantenate, notably encephalopathy with metabolic acidosis and semicoma (1) and a Reye-like syndrome (2) this may be due to pantothenic acid deficiency, as hopantenate is a pantothenic acid antagonist. In elderly people, liver dysfunction and gastrointestinal upsets have been reported (3,4). In Japan, where the product was introduced in 1978, the control authorities in 1988 issued a series of warnings with respect to problems caused by hopantenate (5). 

A sparing effect of large amounts of ascorbic add fed to pantothenic acid-defident rats has been known since the work of Daft (D2, D3), although no such effect occurs in guinea pigs (R7). It is believed that alteration of the bacterial flora of the intestine lessens the pantothenic acid deficiency under these conditions because it has been demonstrated that the antibiotic hygromycin acted in the same way as ascorbic acid, while sulfathiazole nullified the beneficial effect of ascorbic acid (B12). Pyrocatechol intensifies the beneficial action of ascorbic acid (L5). 

B12. Barboriak, J. J., and Krehl, W., Effect of ascorbic acid in pantothenic acid deficiency, J. Nutrition 63, 601-609 (1957). 

D2. Daft, F. S., Effects of vitamin C on pantothenic acid-deficient rats. Federation Froc. 10, 380 (1951). 

In pantothenate-deficient intact rats subjected to forced swimming or injected with ACTH, the typical lymphocytic response was abolished (Dumm et al., 1949). If the deficient animals received a high pantothenic acid diet for 4 days, a more nearly normal response followed either swimming or the injection of ACTH. These findings were attributed to the effects of pantothenic acid deficiency on the structure and function of the adrenal cortex. Winters el al. (1952a) observed that the lymphopenic and eosinopenic responses to ACTH and epinephrine were abolished following a 5- to 6-week period of pantothenate deficiency. However, fol-... 

Although pantothenic acid deficiency is unknown in humans, the effect of the vitamin has been studied in various pathological conditions, such as hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and liver disease. Hypercholesterolemia or hyperlipemia does not occur in pantothenic acid deficiency when blood lipids are increased by the injection of Triton-X-100. The administration of j -biphenylbutyric acid alleviates both hypercholesterolemia and hyperlipemia. 

In medical circles the importance of pantothenic acid as a nutrient is often disregarded because of this universal-occurrence idea and also because it is difficult to produce inhumansaspecificdiseasecondition whichmay be attributed specifically to its deficiency. It would appear that pantothenic acid deficiency (since it is the only organic part of coenzyme A needed nutritionally by mammals) might well cause diffuse adverse effects comparable to those which might be expected to occur in non-osseous tissues as a result of phosphate deficiency. 

The most reasonable interpretation of the extremely diverse effects resulting from pantothenic acid deficiency in various animals (and humans) is based upon the supposition that each tissue in the body is capable of being nourished at various levels of efficiency, and that pantothenic deficiency which can potentially cause damage in every tissue, strikes sometimes here and sometimes there, depending upon many factors which reside in the species or in the afflicted individual animal. Despite the absence of any well-defined human deficiency syndrome there can be no intelligent question regarding the importance of pantothenic acid in human nutrition. 

The following experiments were conducted in order to ascertain the effects of a pantothenic acid deficiency upon the various phases of the anamnestic response to diphtheria toxoid (Pruzansky and Axelrod, 1954). Pantothenic acid-deficient rats and their respective controls were immunized as described above. Three weeks later the antibody response to this primary injection was determined, and the rats were given a secondary injection of the toxoid. A week later, the anamnestic response to this secondary injection was determined. As previously noted, the antibody response to the primary injection of toxoid was very poor in the deficient rats in contrast with the good responses of the controls. No anamnestic response to the secondary injection was observed in the deficient rats, whereas the controls displayed a very marked anamnesis. An anamnestic response in the deficient rats could not be elicited despite the simultaneous administration of large amounts of pantothenic acid immediately following the secondary injection of toxoid. In contrast, the growth effect of the vitamin was immediate and profound. Thus, the deleterious... 

It is known that homopantothenic acid improves the metabohsm of glucose in the brain and the higher functions of the brain and it has been used in Japan to enhance mental functions, especially in Alzheimer s disease. A rare side-effect is an abnormal brain function resulting from the failure of the liver to eliminate toxins (hepatic encephalopathy). This condition was reversed by pantothenic acid supplementation, suggesting that it was due to pantothenic acid deficiency caused by the antagonist homopantothenic acid. 

Figure 2. Scatter Diagram Showing the Effect of a Pantothenic Acid Deficiency upon Antibody Response to Influenza Virus. Each Symbol Represents the litre of an Individual Rat, In All Figures Presented in This Paper, a Hemagglutination-inhibition Titre of Zero Indicates that a 1 20 Dilution of Serum Failed to Inhibit the Hemmagglutinating Potency of the Antigen, Used by Permission, from Axelrod and Hopper (1960). Copyright by the American Institute of Nutrition,...

Lederer, W. H., Kumar, M. and Axelrod, A. E, (1975) Effects of pantothenic acid deficiency on cellular antibody synthesis in rats, J. Nutr., 105 17,... 

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