Vitamin B6 Requirement of the Male Albino Rat

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Abstract
The vitamin B6 requirement of the male Wistar strain rat fed a 20% casein, 20% corn oil diet, was investigated in experiments designed to provide dose response curves over the range of 5 to 80 μg/day. Pyridoxine hydrochloride was administered by subcutaneous injection, by daily oral dosing and by incorporation in the diet. All routes gave comparable results. A linear relationship was noted between the logarithm of the dose administered and the body weight gain and the erythrocyte transaminase activities over considerable portions of the dose response curves. For maximal weight gain, the requirement was between 40 and 80 μg pyridoxine hydrochloride/day. For maximal erythrocyte glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase activity, the requirement was also in the range of 40 to 80 μg/day; for the glutamic-pyruvic enzyme, the requirement was 80 μg or more/day. The 3 parameters provide comparable estimates of vitamin B6 requirement. It is suggested that rat diets should provide about 100 μg pyridoxine hydrochloride/day, or 60 to 70 μg/10 g diet, to ensure the adequacy of the intake. This is considerably higher than the commonly accepted vitamin B6 requirement of the rat.

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