Vitamin deficient diet effect

Williams RJ, Pelton RB. Individuality in nutrition effects of vitamin A-deficient and other deficient diets on experimental animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 1966 55 12634. 

Strict vegetarian diet or after diseases affecting cobalamin absorption. The main effects of vitamin deficiency are pernicious anemia, macrocytosis, and neurological problems. A particularity of this vitamin is that it can be stored especially in the liver and kidneys. 

Diet. The constituents and amount of food (deficiency/starvation) may influence disposition and hence toxicity of chemicals. Food constituents may be enzyme inducers or inhibitors. Lack of food or specific constituents (e.g., protein or vitamins) may decrease metabolic capability, for example, a protein-deficient diet decreases cytochrome P-450 activity. Lack of sulfur amino acids decreases glutathione level. The effect on toxicity will depend on the role of metabolism. 

Vitamin B12 is available in pure form for oral administration or in combination with other vitamins and minerals for oral or parenteral administration. The choice of a preparation always must be made with recognition of the cause of the deficiency. Although oral preparations may be used to supplement deficient diets, they are of relatively little value in the treatment of patients with deficiency of intrinsic factor or ileal disease. Even though small amounts of vitamin B12 may be absorbed by simple diffusion, the oral route of administration cannot be relied upon for effective therapy in the patient with a marked deficiency of vitamin B12 and abnormal hematopoiesis or neurological deficits. Therefore, the preparation of choice for treatment of a vitamin B12-deficiency state is cyanocobal-amin, and it should be administered by intramuscular or deep subcutaneous injection. 

Poultry require 14 vitamins (Table 3.6), but not all have to be provided in the diet. Scott et al. (1982) have presented good descriptions of the effects of vitamin deficiencies in poultry. 

Another possible dietary factor concerns the essential fatty acid content of human and artificial milk. It has been postulated by Sinclair that many modern dietaries are deficient in the essential polyethenoid fatty acids (EFA) and that in consequence there is a rise in unesterified (and more active) vitamin D and in unesterified cholesterol. He has suggested that a part of the etiology of infantile idiopathic hypercalcemia may be attributed to EFA deficiency (S5). He has pointed to the lower content of certain unsaturated fatty acids in cow s milk as compared with human milk as a factor in the development of idiopathic hypercalcemia in artificially fed infants. He considers that dried milk has an even lower content of essential fatty acids than liquid cow s milk and that the longer it is stored the lower does the essential fatty acid content become. On the basis of some observations on rats, he suggests that a dietary deficiency of the essential fatty acids increases susceptibility to the possible toxic effects of vitamin D. The age of the rats, the duration of the essential fatty acid deficient diet, or the dosage of vitamin D is not mentioned, and there would appear to be no other experimental data to support these views. 

Conversely, he observed that vitamin B 2 may serve to enhance the carcinogenic effect of p-dimethylaminoazobenzene in rats fed a methionine-deficient diet. It is important to note, however, that this was only true in rats on a methionine-deficient diet. 

The fact that vitamin D3 toxicity results from primarily uncontrolled intestinal calcium absorption suggests that it is dietary calcium and not vitamin D3 that exacerbates the hypervitaminosis D3 toxicity effect [119]. This was tested by the interaction of excess vitamin D3 and calcium restriction [113]. Rats fed a calcium-deficient diet and given 25,000 IU of vitamin D3 three dmes/week for 2.5 weeks did not succumb to overt hypervitaminosis D3. Simple calcium restriction increased intestinal but not renal 24-OHase activity, presumably because of the absence of parathyroid hormone regulation in the intestine [113]. Coupled with vitamin D3, excess intestinal 24-OHase increased several fold more. However, when dietary calcium was adequate, vitamin D3 excess increased intestinal 24-OHase activity only slightly because of a suppressive mechanism regulated in part by increased blood calcitonin [120],... 

In adults maintained on vitamin A-deficient diets for a period of months, there are a number of early signs, apparent before the impairment of dark adaptation impairment of the senses of taste, smell, and balance and distortion of color vision, with impaired sensitivity to green light. With the exception of the effects on color vision, these can all be attributed to dedifferentiation of ciliated epithelia (Sauberlich et al., 1974 Hodges et al., 1978). 

Although most people in the affluent West have an adequate, well-balanced diet, this is not the case in some parts of the world. Protein and vitamin deficiencies occur and can have effects on the toxicity of chemicals. Lack of protein in the diet reduces the level of many of the enzymes necessary for the metabolism of chemicals and reduces the level of proteins in the blood. If the chemicals are extensively bound to proteins in the blood, this can influence its disposition, as with less protein more of the drug will be freely available in the blood, which may lead to an increase in toxicity. However, less of the drug will be metabolized as the... 

Rats were fed a control diet (2,4 mg retinol/kg diet) or a deficient diet 0.6 mg retinol/kg diet). Following the feeding trial, the stellate cells of the liver were analyzed for their content of vitamin A and other components, as shown in Tabic 9,3, The results demonstrate that the low-vitamin A diet resulted in a decrease in vitamin A content with little effect on the contents of the other lipids. 

FIGURE 9.93 Effect of 8-week vitamin E-deficient diet on levels of vitamin F. in plasma (A), liver ( ), adipose tissue (O), and heart [C. (Redrawn with permisaion fncuti Machlin ef a ., 1979.)... 

FIGURE A.1 Effects of a vitamin D-deficient diet. See text for details. [Redrawn with permission from Brommage et al. (1984).]... 

Pharmacology/toxicology. The science of drugs and poisonous materials (respectively) and their effects on the body. Studies in these areas include diet and nutrition, overdoses, and vitamin deficiencies. 

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