THE INACTIVATION OF ESTRONE BY RATS IN RELATION TO DIETARY EFFECTS ON THE LIVER1

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Abstract
THE recognition of a relationship between the nutritional status of the animal and the ability of the liver to inactivate estrogen was initiated by Biskind and Biskind (1942). These authors reported that the ability to inactivate estrogen coming to the liver from an intrasplenic pellet was lost when the rats were placed on a diet deficient in the vitamin B complex. Other investigators (Shipley and Gyorgy, 1944; Segaloff and Segaloff, 1944; Singher et al., 1944) obtained confirmatory data with various vitamin deficient diets, especially thiamine and riboflavin deficiencies. These results were shown by Drill and Pfeiffer (1946) and later by Jailer (1948) to be due to the decreased food intake that accompanies an acute deficiency of these particular vitamins. It has further been shown that the inanition effect is due to a decreased protein intake rather than a caloric restriction (Jailer, 1950). The importance of an adequate protein intake in the diet was first demonstrated by Unna et al., 1944, who found that liver slices from rats maintained on an 8% casein diet were unable to inactivate estrogen.