Work

Pantothenic Acid Deficiency Induced in Human Subjects 1

Year: 1955

Type: article

Abstract: Bean and Hodges (1) gave a preliminary report of four young men in whom clinical disorders and metabolic faults were induced by a "diet" devoid of pantothenic acid, with omega-methylpantothenic acid, a vitamin antagonist (Figure 1).It is proposed here to describe details of the experiments, results, and some interpretations.The background for using molecular antagonists (2, 3) in human nutrition had been explored previously using antagonists to nicotinic acid (4).Among the accepted B-complex vitamins, pan- tothenic acid has been most puzzling in human nu- trition.Its discovery by Williams, Lyman, Good- year, Truesdail, and Holaday (5) and its presence in coenzyme A (6) suggested metabolic functions in man.Its employment in treating undernour- ished persons yielded no clue.Data from experimental animals revealed that the principal mani- festations of its deficiency are those of adrenal cortical failure, accompanied by low plasma cho- lesterol, gastrointestinal symptoms and lesions, impaired antibody production, neurological lesions and alterations of the epidermis (7-11).The function of pantothenic acid in animals has been clarified by Drell, Dunn and their co-workers (12-15) who synthesized omega-methylpantothenic acid, demonstrated that it antagonized pantothenic acid, determined its toxicity in animals and showed that its deleterious effects could be re- versed or prevented by pantothenic acid.Some of these observations were verified and extended by Shils (16). PROCEDURESEarly in 1950 we tried to induce pantothenic acid de- ficiency in a healthy young man.With the principle of metabolic antagonists well established, with pantothenic

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation

DOI: 10.1172/jci103156