Abstract
There are some reports which demonstrated an impaired water metabolism in animals deprived of pyridoxine. In this experiment pyridoxine deficient rats were also found to exhibit a delayed response to a water load. In such animals pitressin exerted a greater and longer lasting antidiuretic effect than in normal controls. Pyridoxal, when administered to normal rats, reduced antidiuretic activity of pitressin. However, experiments carried out in vitro showed that the ability of liver and kidney to inactivate pitressin was not impaired in this deficiency. ADH content in the posterior pituitary lobe was reduced in severe deficiency. Thus it is inferred that ADH does not play an important role in this derangement of water metabolism. While, adrenocortical function was examined by measuring urinary 17-ketosteroids excretion, adrenal ascorbic acid content and adrenal weight, but no differences were found between deficient and normal animals. These results indicate that adrenocortical function is not largely altered in this deficiency.
