Electrolyte imbalance in vitamin B6-deficient rats.

The importance of vitamin Bs in water metabolism has been studied extensively. Stebbins (1) demonstrated an impaired water metabolism in animals deprived of vitamin Be. Lepkovsky and colleagues (2) suggested that derangement of water metabolism may be involved in the occurrence of fits in vitamin B&-deficient rats. Guggenheim (3) observed that rats in a state of vitamin Be deficiency show a delayed diuretic response to a water load test. Since water balance and electrolyte concentrations bear a close relationship, it was of interest to study the effect of dietary deprivation of vitamin Be on electrolyte concentration. This is particularly so in view of the recent report of Olsen and Martindale (4) demonstrating that vitamin Be-deficient animals were in a state of hypertension. The studies to be presented in this report deal with the influence of dietary vitamin Be restriction on Na and K concentrations of serum and tissues in rats maintained on a high or low fat diet.