EFFECTS OF VITAMIN A DEFICIENCY ON THYROID FUNCTION STUDIED WITH RADIOACTIVE IODINE1,2

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Abstract
There have been a number of investigations bearing on the effects of vitamin A deficiency on the thyroid gland of the rat following the original observation of McCarrison (1914). This author (1931) noted hypertrophy of the gland and abnormal distension of the follicles in vitamin A deficiency. Spence (1932) reported similar results. Mitzkewi’tsch (1934) and Uotila (1938)found that in avitaminosis A the follicles of the gland were filled with colloid and that the epithelial cells were flattened. This was interpreted as indicative of hypofunction. De Ruyter(1934) found that the thyroid became atrophied with epithelial degeneration in severe avitaminosis A. Coplan and Sampson (1935) reported that vitamin A deficiency produced definite hypertrophy of the thyroid gland in the female rat but consistent atrophy in the male. Opposed to these findings is the work of Drennan, Malcolm and Cox (1931), Sampson and Korenchevsky (1932), Sure (1938), and Remington, Harris and Smith (1943).