Excessive vitamin D content of a standard iron-deficient diet for rats.
1. The observation that thyroid C cell hyperplasia occurred in rats given the iron-deficient diet described by McCall, Newman, O'Brien, Valberg & Witts (1962) prompted a closer study of the preparation and constituents of this diet. 2. It became apparent that there was a discrepancy between the amounts of fat-soluble vitamins in the dietary formulation reported and the supposed final content of the diet. A diet prepared as described by McCall et al. (1962) contains 1000 mug (40 000 i.u.) ergocalciferol and 10 mug (14 500 i.u.) retinyl palmitate/kg. 3. An experiment was designed to study the effect of Fe-deficient and Fe-supplemented, high-vitamin-D diets, and an Fe-supplemented, normal-vitamin-D diet, on thyroid C cell volume and serum calcium concentration. 4. Thyroid C cell volumes and serum Ca concentrations were significantly higher in both groups given excess vitamin D than in the group given the Fe-supplemented, normal-vitamin-D diet. It is evident therefore, that hypervitaminosis D was the cause of the morphological and biochemical changes found in rats given the McCall et al. (1962) diet.
D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood; D003677:Deficiency Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006965:Hyperplasia / Q000209:etiology; D007501:Iron / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000090463:Iron Deficiencies; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology
D007501:Iron; D002118:Calcium