By Alwin M. Pappenheimer, MD
Summary: A fascinating snapshot of some of the early animal research testing vitamin E deficiency. Dr. Pappenheimer details the specific cell and tissue degeneration resulting from feeding different species of animals a diet lacking vitamin E, the result most often being lesions in skeletal muscle that Pappenheimer refers to as a kind of "nutritional muscular dystrophy." Neural lesions were also observed in some species. In perhaps the most fascinating finding, a partial vitamin E deficiency in the diet of pregnant rats was shown to manifest only in the rats' offspring, echoing the findings of Drs. Weston Price and Francis Pottenger, Jr., in the 1930s that the effects of malnutrition are passed on to subsequent generations. Pappenheimer concludes, "The fact that a partial deficiency of vitamin E in the mother may manifest itself only in the offspring seems to me to be one of the most significant lessons that one can draw from this work. May not similar things happen in human diseases, and help to explain the supposed hereditary or familial character of certain nervous and muscular disorders?" From Journal of the Mount Sinai Hospital. Reprint 57, 1941.
View PDF: Certain Nutritional Disorders of Lab Animals Due to Vitamin E Deficiency
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