Preservation of seminiferous epithelium and fertility in male rats on vitamin E-low rations supplemented by ?-tocopherol
✍ Scribed by Evans, Herbert M. ;Emerson, Gladys A. ;Emerson, Oliver H.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1939
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 817 KB
- Volume
- 74
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0003-276X
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✦ Synopsis
ONE TEXT FIGURE AXD TWO PLATES (T%N FIGURES)
I n the isolation of the pure substances (Evans, Emerson and Emerson, '36) having vitamin E activity (the so-called tocopherols) the biological test employed was the capacity of the substance to restore fertility in female rats of proved sterility when administered in a single dose of a few milligrams. I n reality this test means only that we have assured the life and the normal development of embryos so that young are born in a condition not detectably different from normal when they would otherwise have died in utero and been resorbed. The isolation of a-tocopherol was soon followed by three successful syntheses (Karrer et al., '38; Smith et al., '38 ; Bergel et al., '38) one of which, tested in this laboratory, possessed potency a t the 3-mg. level and was hence fully comparable with the natural product.
Test of the capacity of a-tocopherol to preserve the seminiferous epithelium in males held on E-low rations has not hitherto been made. Mention may perhaps be made to actual 'Aided by grants from the Board of Research and the Department of Agriculture of the University of California, from Merclr and Company, Inc., Rahway, New .Jersey, and from the Rockefeller Foundation, New York. Assistance was rendered by the Federal Works Progress Administration, Project 8877 A-5. The following materials were generously contributed : brewers' yeast by The Vitamin Food Company of Kew York, cod liver oil by E. R. Squibb and Sons, wheat germ from which oil was prepared by General Mills, Inc., and a-tocopheryl allophanate hy Merck and Company, Iiic.