Summary
This paper demonstrates that vitamin A deficient (A−) cotton rats are more susceptible to infection withLitomosoides carinii than normal (A+) cotton rats. However, embryogenesis is frequently retarded in female worms from A− hosts.
Groups of young cotton rats were depleted of their liver stores of vitamin A by feeding them a vitamin A free diet from weaning. From 6 weeks of age this diet was supplemented with either 2, 5, 10, 25 or 100 IU vitamin A per 100 g body weight per day and half the animals in each group were infected withL. carinii. At autopsy, 51 days post-infection, serum vitamin A levels were proportional to vitamin A intake but were unaffected by infection (P<0.05). A+ cotton rats grew more rapidly and gained more weight than A− ones; infected animals gained less weight than their uninfected controls. More parasites developed in rats fed either 2 or 5 IU vitamin A than those fed either 10, 25 or 100 IU (P<0.02) and parasites from the 5 IU group were significantly longer than those from all other groups (P<0.02).
However, microfilarial development was retarded in female worms from A− animals as compared with A+ ones.
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Storey, D.M. Vitamin A deficiency and the development ofLitomosoides carinii (Nematoda, Filarioidea) in cotton rats. Z. Parasitenkd. 67, 309–315 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00927666
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00927666