Abstract
Male Wistar rats, 35-days-old, maintained on a thiamine deficient diet for 30 days showed marked growth inhibition and a heart rate less than 70% of that of control rats. We examined the effect of thiamine deficiency on the action of drugs effecting the central nervous system at this period. In thiamine deficient rats treated with chloral hydrate 200 mg/kg, ketamine 100 mg/kg, sodium pentobarbital 50 mg/kg, and hexobarbital 100 mg/kg, the sleeping time increased. Pretreatment with 15 mg/kg of the metabolic enzymes inhibitor, SKF-525A, 30 min prior to the hexobarbital administration resulted in prolongation of sleeping time in all groups. The thiamine deficient rats slept almost 3.5 times longer than did the control group. Pretreatment with 100 mg/kg of the metabolic enzyme inducer, sodium phenobarbital, 48 hours prior to hexobarbital treatment resulted in decreased sleeping time in all groups, as compared with only hexobarbital treatment. In the thiamine deficient rats, the catalepsy and ptosis induced by the i.p. administration of tetrabenazine 50 mg/kg was reduced even when the control and pair-fed groups responded to this drug at the drug peak time. The spontaneous neuronal activity of lateral hypothalamus was most sensitive to the administration of 5-hydroxytryptophan in thiamine deficient rats.
