1. A study was undertaken to investigate the role of vitamin E in the aetiology of phrynoderma (follicular hyperkeratosis). Fifty-six children with the disease and twenty-one normal children were investigated for this purpose.

2. Plasma vitamin E levels (mean±SE; mg/l) were found to be low in phrynoderma (3.7±0.19) in contrast with normal children (6.6±0.40) and therapy with a combination of vitamin E and B-complex brought about complete cure.

3. The increase in plasma vitamin E levels after the administration of vitamin E at a dose of 100 mg three times daily for 4 weeks was higher than that obtained when vitamin E at the same dose was administered together with vitamin B-complex for 4 weeks, suggesting an interaction between the two vitamins. Further studies are necessary to find out the exact nature of this interrelationship.

1. The effect of feeding a highly-palatable and varied diet on growth and body composition was assessed in male rats, some of which had undergone a period of undernutrition early in their development.

2. Undernutrition during gestation had no effects on weight, length or fat content of offspring in adulthood. Rats underfed during the first 3 weeks of postnatal life were shorter, lighter and more lean as adults than controls which had been well nourished through life.

3. Feeding the palatable diet from weaning led to increases in length and fat-free mass, and to comparable extents of obesity in all groups, irrespective of whether they had suffered either period of undernutrition. Access to palatable food for 30 d in adulthood also led to obesity, but to increases in length and fat-free mass in only the groups undernourished during suckling.

4. Withdrawal of the palatable diet led to some initial weight loss in all groups, irrespective of whether they had been undernourished during development; and 100 d following the replacement of the palatable with stock diet, there were no longer differences in weight between groups which had received palatable food, and those given stock diet throughout.

5. Nevertheless, those rats which had been undernourished during the suckling period and subsequently fed on the palatable diet still showed increased length and fat-free mass relative to their controls fed on the stock diet throughout.

6. All groups which had received the palatable diet, whether from weaning or as adults, and irrespective of early nutrition, were significantly less fat 100 d after its withdrawal than were those rats fed on the stock diet throughout life.

1. DNA synthesis in the bone marrow and lymphocytes of the vitamin B12-deficient fruit bat (Rosettus Aegyptiacus) has been studied via the deoxyuridine (dU) suppression test.

2. In contrast to vitamin B12 deficiency in man, the dU suppression test was not abnormal in the vitamin B12-deficient bat, and this correlates with the reported finding that the latter does not develop megaloblastic anaemia.

3. The protection of haemopeiesis from vitamin B12 deficiency in the bat is probably related to the presence in the bat of separate pools of methylfolate and tetrahydrofolate, which enables the bat to overcome the trapping of methylfolate attendant on vitamin B12 deficiency.

4. These results confirm the central role of the vitamin B12 and folate-dependent pathway of de novo synthesis of DNA in the pathogenesis of vitamin B12-deficient megaloblastic anaemia.

1 A 7 d total dietary record was kept in 1970 by schoolchildren from one-parent families and by a control sample matched for sex and age who were living with both parents. The children were aged, on average, 14.5 years and were from schools in Newcastle upon Tyne. Medical assessments were made within 2 weeks of the dietary study.

2. Mean daily intakes of food energy and most nutrients were significantly larger (P < 0.05) in the fatherless boys compared with the controls. There was no such difference between the corresponding two groups of girls. The quality of the diet, assessed as nutrients/MJ was similar in all four groups.

3. There was no evidence of undernutrition; a few children were considered to be obese. The findings in a period of relative affluence may serve as a baseline for subsequent dietary studies.

1. Nutrition surveys were made in Great Britain between 1968 and 1971 of 1321 pre-schoolchildren aged 6 months to 4.5 years, 321 primary schoolchildren (10–11 years), 178 secondary schoolchildren (14–15 years), 792 secondary schoolchildren (14–15 years), 435 women in the second trimester of pregnancy, 443 elderly people (65–74 years), 384 elderly people (75 years and over).

2. The studies included a 7 d weighed dietary record and all subjects except some of the pre-schoolchildren were medically assessed for evidence of malnutrition. Among the children there were no clinical signs of undernutrition, 4% of the boys and 7% of the girls were described as obese. In the survey of elderly people 3% were malnourished but in each case malnutrition was associated with clinical disease.

3. Percentage frequency distribution curves of mean daily intakes (averaged for 7 d) were obtained for total food energy, total protein, animal protein, fat, carbohydrate, calcium, iron, retinol, thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine, vitamin C and vitamin D.

4. Comparison of the distribution of food energy intakes with 1969 recommendations (Department of Health and Social Security, 1969) showed that the mean of the distribution was less than the 1969 recommendation for energy. From the age of 12 months, results indicated that males had larger intakes of food energy than females.

5. Comparison of the distributions for protein, Ca, Fe, retinol, thiamin, riboflavin and vitamin C with the recommendations for these nutrients revealed that appreciable numbers of people had intakes less than the recommendations without signs of malnutrition.

Bipiperidyl mustard produced increased adiposity in the rat without excessive weight gain or hyperphagia.

The results suggest a metabolic aetiology for the obesity as opposed to a disorder of food intake regulation.

1. The chromium in the diets of lactating Finnish mothers and of their breast milk was determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption.

2. The average maternal diet was estimated to provide approximately 30 μg Cr/d. Breast milk samples had a mean Cr content of 0.4 ng/ml, with a range of 0.1g-06g ng/ml.

3. Cr intake of the lactating mothers did not correlate with the corresponding breast milk Cr concentration.

4. The diets and the breast milk of these Finnish mothers were lower in Cr than those of any other population studied in the world.

1. The early effects of a moderate polyunsaturated fat diet on the composition of circulating lipoproteins and adipose tissue fatty acids were measured in five healthy adults.

2. The fatty acid content and gross composition of the three major plasma lipoprotein fractions altered within 7 d of treatment. The response of depot fat was slower but did show a significant and progressive change after 14 d on the diet.

3. The efficiency of the moderate diet in changing the composition of the lipoproteins suggests that it should be equally dfective in altering their metabolic handling.

1. A case is described of an Englishman who suffered severe ‘wet beriberi’ whilst a prisoner of war (POW) of the Japanese in World War II.

2. Following release he developed a congestive cardiomyopathy which increased in severity until his death 31 years after repatriation.

3. Autopsy findings were consistent with chronic cardiac damage due to beriberi.

1.Weight loss, resting metabolic rate and nitrogen loss were measured in forty obese inpatients on reducing diets.

2. Five subjects ate 3·55 MJ/d for 6 weeks (Expt I). Twenty-one subjects ate 4.2 MJ/d for the first week, 2·0 MJ/d for the second week and 4 2 MJ/d for the third week (Expt 2). Fourteen subjects ate 3·4 MJ/d for the first week and then 0.87 MJ protein or carbohydrate for the second or third weeks, using a cross-over design for alternate patients (Expt 3).

3. Patients in Expt I had highest weight loss and N loss in the first 2 weeks, but adapted to the energy restriction over the remaining weeks. On average subjects were in N balance at the end of the study.

4. In Expt 2 patients eating 2·0 MJ/d in week 2 showed increased weight loss compared with week I.N loss was not raised but it failed to decrease as it had in Expt I. Weight loss and N loss were reduced on return to 4.2 MJ/d for a third week.

5. In Expt 3 patients eating 0·87 MJ protein showed significantly more weight loss and less N loss than patients eating 0·87 MJ carbohydrate.

6. Resting metabolic rate decreased with time on the low-energy diet, but the manipulations of energy or protein content did not significantly affect the pattern of decrease.

7. Both weight loss and N loss were greater the lower the energy intake, and both decreased with time. Diets with a high protein:energy value give a favourable value for N:weight loss at each level of energy intake.

1. Male and female Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were reared under short daily photoperiods (8 h light–16 h dark) to inhibit sexual development with free access to food and water. Blood was sampled at frequent intervals for 13 weeks from hatching in order to monitor the developmental changes in plasma concentrations of the two proteins which are important in the transport of retinol, retinol-binding protein (RBP) and thyroxine-binding prealbumin (TBPA).

2. Measurements of body-weight, blood packed cell volume and plasma total protein concentration showed that the birds had a normal pattern of growth and haematological development. Plasma concentrations of TBPA, total immunoreactive RBP (IRBP) and holoRBP were 220, 60 and 45 μg/ml respectively in 1-d-old quail and rose to 430, 165 and 140 μg/ml at 14 d of age, which was 10 d after the corresponding change in total protein. Neither RBP nor TBPA concentrations were significantly different between the sexes during the 13 weeks, but there were minor fluctuations in concentration within relatively narrow limits.

1. An experiment was carried out with goats fed on a low-protein ration to clarify the importance of the rumen and significance of saliva in the appearance of re-cycled urea in the digestive tract during the final third of a once daily feeding regimen. The isotope-dilution method with [15N]urea and 15NH4Cl was used.

2. When the serum urea level was 58 mg N/l, the amount of urea transferred from the blood urea pool to the rumen ammonia pool was 48.6 mg N/l, which was estimated to be approximately 43% of the total amount of urea having appeared in the NH3 pool of the digestive tract. When the serum urea level was 106 mg N/l, the corresponding amount of NH3 was 77.7 mg N/h, which was estimated to be approximately 46% of this total amount.

3. The amount of saliva secreted was measured directly by the oesophageal fistula method. Salivary secretion serves as a mode of transfer of blood urea to the rumen NH3 pool. Then the ratio, salivary secretion:diffusion through the rumen wall during the final third of the cycle was calculated to be 1:4–1:6.

4. In goats fed on a low-protein diet, the rumen is an important site of appearance of blood urea in the digestive tract. It was verified that the principal mode of transfer of blood urea to the rumen was the direct diffusion through the wall of the rumen.

1. The relationship between protein content of abomasal digesta and abomasal secretion of acid was studied in sheep fitted with re-entrant cannulas in the proximal duodenum.

2. A close relationship was found between the rate of passage of protein through the abomasum and acid secretion, both after varying the protein content of the rations supplied, and after direct introduction of proteins into the abomasum (infusion tube).

3. It is concluded that proteins stimulate abomasal secretion of acid.

1. Six experiments each involving two groups of six piglets, were designed to study the influence of environmental temperature on heat production, energy retention and protein and fat gain in early weaned piglets. Immediately after weaning, at a mean age of 25 d, the animals were raised in two open circuit respiratory chambers. Each chamber was equipped with a totally wired cage. The piglets were paired-fed and maintained at environmental temperatures of 20, 24 or 28°. Four replicates were used for each temperature. Metabolizable energy, heat production and nitrogen balance were measured during two consecutive periods (A and B), each of 6 d duration.

2. Heat production was higher at 20° than at 24 and 28° during periods A and B. Energy retention was negative during period A, it was positive during period B and increased with temperature.

3. Protein deposition was always positive and independent of environmental temperature. The net efficiency of protein utilization was 0.77.

4. Body fat was mobilized during period A at a higher rate at 20° than 28°. During period B, fat gain increased with increase in temperature.

5. The calculated ME requirement for maintenance amounted to 411 kJ/kg body-weight0.75 per d at 28°.

6. The critical temperature of early weaned piglets raised in intensive modern housing and fed at about 90% of the ad lib. intake is close to 28° during the first 12 d after weaning.

1. The rumen adapts to increased food intake by the hyperplasia of epithelial cells.

2. Volatile fatty acids (VFA) stimulate cell mitosis of sheep ruminal epithelium in vivo.

3. Since VFA generally inhibit cell proliferation in vitro insulin was proposed in this study as the possible mediator of the mitotic stimulation in vivo.

4. Infusions (6 h) of insulin (0.125 U/kg per h) plus glucose (300 mg/kg per h) (n 5), and glucose alone (300 mg/kg per h) (n 2) resulted in higher mitotic index of biopsied rumen epithelium (MI) during 3 or 6 to 24 h after the start of infusion, and higher plasma immunoreactive insulin (IRI) and higher plasma glucose (PG) during the infusion.

5. Insulin plus glucose infusion showed higher MI, higher IRI, and lower PG than glucose infusion.

6. Sheep infused with saline for 6 h (n 1) showed no marked changes in MI, IRI, and PG.

7. Increased IRI by insulin plus glucose or glucose alone infusion was considered to stimulate cell proliferation in rumen epithelium.

8. Other possible mediations were discussed.

1. Sheep were given four different diets which contained two types of forage and two types of concentrate. The forage portion of the diet consisted of either hay or silage, while the low-oil concentrate had high levels of starch and in the high-oil concentrate this starch was replaced by an isoenergetic amount of soya-bean oil.

2. The effects of these diets on various factors in the blood was measured.

3. The erythrocytes were more fragile in hypotonic solutions (6.0–8.5 g sodium chloride/l) of saline when they were eating a diet of hay and high-oil concentrates.

4. The levels of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, glucose and β-hydroxybutyrate in the plasma were unaffected by dietary treatments.

5. Substitution of silage for hay in the diet increased the intake of all fatty acids, especially that of C18:3.

6. When the sheep had low intakes of oil, the change from hay to silage led to increases in the amounts of triglyceride (TG) and total lipid (TL) in their plasma, whereas with high intakes of oil this change of forage increased the plasma TG content by an even greater amount but did not alter the concentration of TL.

7. Increasing the intake of dietary oil raised the levels of both TG and TL in the plasma, irrespective of the type of dietary forage.

8. On silage diets the sheep had much greater amounts of 18:0 and 18:1 fatty acids but smaller quantities of 18:2 fatty acid in their plasma than on hay diets.

9. Changing the dietary forage from hay to silage or the concentrate from low- to high-oil enhanced the levels of all the trans isomers of C18 fatty acids in the blood of the animals.

10. These results imply that unsaturated fatty acids in silage-based diets are hydrogenated to a greater extent in the rumen than those in hay diets which results in an elevation in blood TG levels and that this in turn could profoundly alter such functions as milk fat synthesis and fat deposition in ruminants.

1. Expt 1. Five 150 kg steers with ruminal, abomasal and ileal cannulas were given 3000 g oaten chaff daily plus prelleted supplement with no added nitrogen (diet A) or 50 g N/d as urea (diet B), casein (diet C), casein and formaldehyde-treated casein (HCHO-casein) (50:50 w/w; diet D) and HCHO-casein (diet E), in a 5 × 5 Latin square design. The basal diet and supplement were fed in eight equal increments at intervals of 3 h. Proportions of dry matter and organic matter digested in the stomach and whole tract were greater for diets B, C, D and E than for diet A. Total volatile fatty acid levels in the rumen and the proportion of acetic acid were lower, and the proportion of propionic acid higher on diet A than on the other diets. Rumen ammonia levels were lower on diets A, D and E than on diets B and C. N flows at the abomasum, ileum and rectum were lower on diet A than on the other diets; abomasal flows and apparent intestinal absorptions of amino acids were higher on diets D and E than on diets A, B and C. Efficiencies of bacterial protein synthesis were 15, 15, 14, 13 and 12 g bacterial N/kg OM truly digested in the stomach on diets A, B, C, D and E respectively.

2. Expt. 2. Forty 300 kg steers were fed oaten chaff ad lib. plus twice the amount of the same pelleted supplements as in Expt 1. Intake of oaten chaff was 23% higher with N supplements (diets B, C, D and E) than without (diet A). Live-weight gains were 356, 798, 843, 842 and 805 g/d on diets A, B, C, D and E respectively.

3. It was concluded that efficiency of bacterial protein synthesis was not limited by the supply of peptides and amino acids in the rumen and that increases in amino acid availability in the intestines from feeding HCHO-casein did not increase food intake or live-weight gain.

1. An experiment was conducted with goat kids to determine the effect of zinc injection on Zn binding in cytosols of several tissues of kids.

2. Following the Zn load, plasma Zn increased for 8 h then decreased. Zn injection significantly increased the Zn contents of the liver and kidney.

3. Injection of Zn into kids stimulated the production of Zn in a fraction with an apparent molecular weight of approximately 10000 in the cytosols of the liver, kidney and small intestinal mucosa. It is suggested that these fractions probably correspond to metallothioneins, Rumen papilla did not synthesize Zn-containing protein in response to an acute administration of Zn.

4. Zn injection significantly decreased the Cu content of the liver and affected the distribution of Cu in hepatic cytosol fraction, suggesting an interaction between these two elements.

5. The volume of bile collected in the gall bladder and its Zn content were markedly increased by Zn injection, suggesting that bile is one of the Zn excretion routes in kids.

1. Hepatocytes isolated from vitamin B12-deficient and vitamin B12-supplemented rats were maintained in primary culture and were used to study the effect of methionine on the metabolism of [3H]folic acid and [5-14C]methyltetrahydrofolic acid.

2. Vitamin B12 levels were reduced by approximately 75% in the hepatocytes from the deficient animals. Total folate and methyltetrahydrofolic acid concentrations were also significantly reduced.

3. There was no significanct difference in the uptake and retention of added [3H[folic acid and [5-14C]-methyltetrahydrofolic acid between the hepatocytes of the two groups. The incorporation of 14C into phospholipids was reduced by approximately 60% in the vitamin B12-deficient hepatocytes (P < 0.001).

4. The addition of methionine to the culture medium doubled the uptake and retention of 3H in both groups, but it did not change the amount of water-soluble 14C Compounds. In the vitamin B12-deficient hepatocytes mainly methylated folate increased, whereas non-methylated folate increased in the hepatocytes of the control animals. A tenfold increase of 14C incorporated into phospholipids was found in both groups after methionine was added.

5. Demethylation of methyltetrahydrofolic acid, the intracellular retention of folate and the utilization of liberated methyl groups, for example in the methylation of phospholipids, were highest in the presence of both methionine and vitamin B12 suggesting an intimate co-ordination between these two substances in the regulation of folate metabolism.