title: Muscular changes in the guinea pig caused by chronic ascorbic acid deficiency.
abstract: The present study was undertaken in order to decide whether chronic ascorbic acid (AA) deficiency only causes myopathy in the guinea pig or whether it also causes central nervous system pathology. Juvenile male animals, fed an optimally balanced, purified diet with minimal amounts of AA, developed a nutritional myopathy complicated by trauma, arthrogenic factors and defective repair. The absence of changes in the spinal pyramidal tracts, the anterior horn cells and peripheral nerve agrees with the absence of neurogenic changes in muscle specimens as target, targetoid, or small angulated fibers, group atrophy, type grouping, or changes in the distribution pattern of fibers. We conclude that chronic AA deficiency in the guinea pig cannot serve as an animal model of human amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Sillevis Smitt
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Troost
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kuipers
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; D000818:Animals; D001206:Ascorbic Acid Deficiency / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D001835:Body Weight; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006474:Hemorrhagic Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000473:pathology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology