Studies of polyarthritis induced in rats by injection of mycobacterial adjuvant. VI. Effects of dietary alterations
Mellinkoff, S.M.; Pearson, C.M.; Wood, F.D.; Eshelmano; Dixon, W.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 10: 398-402
1962
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9165 PMID: 14472399 Accession: 014201080
Previous parts did not deal with nutrition. 6. The production of polyarthritis, which occurs in rats 10 to 15 days after a single intracutaneous injec tion of Freund's water-in-oil adjuvant containing the wax D fraction from killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was described in earlier work (e.g., part 1, Pearson and Wood, Arthritis and Rheumat., 1959, 2, 440). Young rats from weaning were maintained for dif ferent periods on diets which all contained adequate amounts of protein, fat, minerals and vitamins and were supplied to appetite, but in which the propor tions of lactalbumin, glucose and maize oil varied. The diets were given only after or for 14 to 84 days before injection of the adjuvant. When all diets were considered, female rats were more susceptible to polyarthritis than males, with high significance. On diets with 80 or 98% lact albumin there was a significant diminution of severity of arthritis compared with all other diets; for the 4 protein contents 15, 50, 80 and 98% there was an inverse linear relation between protein and severity of arthritis, but only when the diets had been given for at least 40 days before the injection. On the diets very high in protein weight gains were less than on other diets, and it was not clear whether the protection depended on the slow rate of gain. D. Duncan.