MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY IN INTACT, IN ADRENALECTOMIZED AND IN HYPOPHYSECTOMIZED RATS1

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Abstract
Control and magnesium-deficient synthetic diets were fed ad libitum to intact, to adrenalectomized and to hypophysectomized male rats for 8, 15 and 22 days. The course and sequence of the appearance of magnesium-deficiency symptoms were recorded. In the intact and the adrenalectomized rats fed the deficient diet, the growth rate was depressed, whereas the hypophysectomized deficient rats showed no significant difference in weight gain compared to their controls. Rats in each of the three groups on the deficient diet developed hyperemia, leucocytosis (especially eosinophilia) and renal lesions in the distal convoluted tubules coincident with the initial depletion of serum magnesium. In the intact and the adrenalectomized rats these magnesium-deficiency symptoms appeared during the first week on the experimental diet, but in the hypophysectomized rats the onset of the symptoms was significantly delayed to the third week. Although the kidney lesions were similar to those described for the potassium-deficient rats, they appeared to be due to magnesium deficiency per se in these animals. The data also suggested a possible pituitary-kidney axis for the control of serum magnesium level.