Nutrition

Extract

The Growth of Embryonic Nervous Tissue in Plasma taken from Vitamin A deficient Fowls and Rats. W. R. Aykroyd and G. Sankaran. Indian Journal of Medical Research. Vol. 23, 1936, p. 929. (Ref. Nutrition Abstracts, Vol. 6, 1936, p. 318.)

Fragments of spinal cord or cerebrum from fowl embryos incubated for 7 to 9 days were cultivated in a mixture of Tyrode solution with the plasma of young fowls which had been exposed to sunlight and fed on a diet deficient in vitamin A, on the same diet with cod liver oil added, and on a normal diet. Fragments of cerebrum from rat embryos 19 to 21 days old were similarly cultured in plasma from rats on corresponding diets. In both series the growth of the explanted tissue was markedly inferior in the plasma from deficient animals, was best in that from normally fed animals, and was intermediate in that from animals on the deficient diet with vitamin A as cod liver oil.