The Effects of Riboflavin Deficiency on Phagocytosis and Susceptibility to Infection

[摘要] Male white rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain were maintained on a well defined diet deficient in riboflavin, and a) the phagocytic activity of the leukocytes and b) the susceptibility of the deficient animal to bacterial infection were studied. Adequate numbers of inanition and ad libitum control animals were included.The following observations were made from these studies: 1. 1. Riboflavin deficiency had a marked effect on the capacity of the leukocytes to phagocytize Diplococcus pneumoniae . The percentage of neutrophils actively engaged in phagocytosis was considerably less in the deficient animals than in the controls. The phagocytic activity of the leukocytes of the inanition and ad libitum control animals was comparable. The average number of organisms phagocytized by the active neutrophils of the deficient animals was considerably less than by the cells of either the ad libitum or inanition control rats. The cells of the inanition animals engulfed fewer organisms than did those of the ad libitum animals; however, on an average, they engulfed a great deal more than did those of the riboflavin deficient animals.2. 2. Riboflavin deficient animals were highly susceptible to D. pneumoniae . However, the group of riboflavin deficient animals that received 60 μg of riboflavin daily for 7 days had a much lower percentage of fatality. There were no fatalities due to the extension of riboflavin deficiency for the total period of the experiment. The rats fed the ad libitum and inanition diets were less susceptible to the challenge dose of virulent type I D. pneumoniae than were those maintained on the riboflavin deficient diet.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）