Hepatic Injury on a Nutritional Basis in Rats

In forty-eight rats kept on a basal diet deficient in the vitamin B complex and supplemented with vitamin B(1) and riboflavin or with vitamin B(1), riboflavin and vitamin B(6), various pathological changes in the liver were observed. These changes were characterized mainly by parenchymatous and fatty degeneration, focal and massive necrosis, hyperemia and hernorrhage and, in some of the rats, by perilobular and condensation fibrosis. Addition of yeast or Peters' eluate (yeast extract) regularly prevented this hepatic injury. On the basis of the evidence obtained, it is assumed that the liver changes are of nutritional origin and should be correlated to deficiency of a part of the vitamin B(2) complex.