Effects of tocopherol depletion on muscle nucleic acid and creatine levels in the frog

¹ Shanklin Laboratory of Biology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Groups of adult male frogs were force fed on diets either devoid of fat and tocopherols or containing "stripped" corn oil with or without added -tocopherol for 120 days. At the end of this period histological examinations of the gastrocnemius muscles and testes revealed no signs of degeneration in any dietary group. Biochemical studies on the muscle gave no reflection of tocopherol deficiency in the levels or proportions of total ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid but did show a marked lowering of total muscle creatine in frogs on the tocopherol-free diets. The deficient animals subjected to considerable amounts of the polyunsaturated corn oil exhibited the lowest creatine levels. It is concluded that the adult frog has a dietary requirement for vitamin E and that more prolonged deprivation probably would result in the dystrophic symptoms commonly noted in other species.