The influence of dietary pyridoxine on mortality rate of the magnesium deficient rat.

In the course of studying tryptophan metabolism in magnesium deficient rats, we noted that the magnesium deficiency state seemed to be accelerated in rats receiving higher than normal levels of pyridoxine in the diet. In these metabolic studies, animals which received 20 times the normal pyridoxine level in their diet had a definitely higher mortality rate than the magnesium deficint animals maintained on a normal pyridoxine intake. The present study was undertaken to more accurately corroborate the earlier ob servations and also to determine whether or not the enhanced mortality rate of the ani mals on a high pyridoxine diet could be cor related with a lower serum magnesium level.