Pantothenic Acid Deficiency in Experimental Animals

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 normtd graying of heur with eige is related to pantothenic acid nutrition, nor that ptmtothenic acid supplements have emy effect on hair color. 

In pantothenic acid-deficient rats, tissue CoA is depleted, affecting meunly the peroxisomal oxidation of fatty acids, which is meunly concerned with detoxication mitochondrial -oxidation, which is tm essentied energy-yielding pathway, is speued to a great extent (Youssef et td., 1997). However, relatively moderate deficiency in tuiimtds results in increased pltisma triacylglycerol emd nonesterified fatty acids, su esting some imptdrment of lipid metabolism (Wittwer et td., 1990). 

Deficient animals have an impciired ability to respond to metabolic and physical stress as a result of this decrccised adrenocortical hormone synthesis, although this may be accompanied by enhanced sensitivity of target tissues to hormone action. Some strains of rat cue susceptible to the development of duodenal ulcers in pantothenic acid deficiency. Ulceration can be prevented by adrenalectomy and is exacerbated by administration of glucocorticoid hormones. 

Dogs develop severe and potenticdly fatal hypoglycemia in pantothenic acid deficiency - this responds to the administration of glucocorticoid hormones, suggesting that it is secondcuy to impairment of adrenal cortical function. 

Deficient cutimcds are also more susceptible to infection than are adequately nourished control animals, with impciired cmtibody responses. This seems to be due to a defect in the transport of proteins destined for export from the cell as a result of the impairment of acylation of Golgi proteins. 

Rats on a pantothenic acid-free diet show rapid depletion of adrenal corticosteroids, and reduced production of the steroids in isolated adrenal gltmds in response to stimulation with adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH). This presumably reflects the role of acetyl CoA in the synthesis of steroids deficiency also results in atrophy of the seminiferous tubules of male rats and delayed sexual maturation in females. As deficiency progresses, there is enlargement, then congestion, tmd finally hemorrhage, of the adrenal cortex. In young tmimals, but not in adults, ptmtothenic acid deprivation eventutilly leads to necrosis of the adrentil cortex. 

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The combination of pantoic acid (a,7-dihydroxy- 8,/3-dimethylbutyric acid) and 8-alanine is also called pantothenic add, this name is derived from its nearly universal occurrence. Pantothenic acid is listed as one of the B vitamins. Pantothenic acid deficiency in experimental animals produces various symptoms (chicken pellagra, graying of hair in the rat) but in man deficiency diseases are not known. 

Deficiency is well documented in chickens, which develop a pantothenic acid-responsive dermatitis. Other experimental animals show a variety of abnormalities from pantothenic acid deficiency. In human beings dietary deficiency has not been reliably documented, although it has been implicated in the burning foot syndrome (nutritional melalgia). Subjects maintained on pantothenic acid-deficient diets or given the antagonist [Pg.345]

In experimental animals, deficiency of pantothenic acid (needed for CoASH and, hence, succinyl-CoA synthesis), lack of vitamin Be, or the presence of compounds that block the functioning of pyridoxal phosphate (e.g.. 

Experimental duodenal ulcers until recently, were not easily induced in the most commonly used laboratory animals (e.g., rats, mice)( 1 ). The few available methods were complex and not widely used. For example, the chronic deficiency of pantothenic acid in certain strains of rats (13), 24-h sc infusion of secretagogues (e.g., histamine, carbachol, pentagastrin) in fasted rats (14),... 

In various animals, experimental deficiency of pantothenic acid causes various pathological conditions (pellagra in chickens graying of hair in rats). True deficiency diseases are not known in man. A conjugate of pantothenic acid, pantetheine, is a growth factor for many microorganisms (the Lactobacillus htdgaricus factor ). 

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