Incidence of Teratogeny Induced by Vitamin E Deficiency in the Rat

Summary

Holtzman and Sherman strain female albino rats were raised on tocopherol-free or tocopherol-supplemented diets for 3 months, then bred to normal males. On the 9th to 11th day of gestation most of the depleted females received a tocopherol supplement by stomach tube. All animals were sacrificed on the 21st day of gestation and the uteri and fetuses examined for resorptions and congenital malformations. Of the 92 developed fetuses produced by those rats receiving the delayed supplements, only 4—or less than 5% of the total—showed any gross abnormalities. This finding contrasts sharply with earlier reports of others, wherein almost half of the surviving fetuses were found to be defective. The reasons for these differences are not clear. The reproductive performance of rats raised and bred on a diet containing 2 mg of tocopherol per 100 of diet was normal, but when the tocopherol level was lowered to 1 mg or 0.5 mg the incidence of fetal abnormalities became 4 and 5%, respectively, of the developed young. No differences were observed between the two rat strains.