Cholesterol, Lecithin, and Fatty Acids in the Blood of New Born Mice with Inherited Anemia and Their Normal Litter Mates

The inherited anemia discussed in this paper has been found to be caused by, or to be closely associated with, the gene W for dominant white (1). Mice of the genetic const,itution Ww have a certain amount of white in their pelage, the recessives ww, in the absence of other factors for white, are uniformly colored, while the homozygous condition WW is manifested somatically by a severe anemia which terminates fatally a few days after birth. This trait acts as a simple Mendelian character. According to expectations one-fourth of all the offspring from Ww X Ww matings are anemic and can be recognized as such by their pale appearance which contrasts strikingly with the livid color of their normal litter mates. They usually live from 3 to 5 days and die in an emaciated condition despite the fact that their stomachs can be seen to be gorged with milk. Examination of several hundred anemic individuals has shown that they present a very constant picture. Their weight at birth averages 81.36 per cent of the normal. The anemic animal has only 15.04 per cent as many red corpuscles as the normal, and 25.24 per cent as much hemoglobin. The actual figures in terms of human standards are given in Table I. The occasional normoblasts in the circulating blood show the same ratio in the two types of individuals. Showers of nucleated red cells, which are characteristic phases in the clinical picture of pernicious anemia, have never been observed. The number of reticulated red cells in the circulation of the anemic mice is