BENZYLPENICILLIN TOXICITY IN ANIMALS ON A SYNTHETIC HIGH SUCROSE DIET

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Abstract
Mice became more susceptible to the lethal effects of a single dose of benzyl-penicillin (penicillin G) given orally or subcutaneously after they had been fed a synthetic diet deficient in pantothenic acid for 2 weeks. Rats developed a fulminating reaction with 50% deaths within 1 week when placed upon the same diet and given a daily dose of benzylpenicillin which, over 100 days, killed 50% of controls on fox chow. The syndrome was not due to absence of pantothenic acid, since it was not altered in mice or rats by supplementation with pantothenate, nor to absence of cellulose, nor to formation on standing of toxic products in the synthetic diet. The diet contained 64% sucrose, an amount equivalent to 40 g of sucrose eaten by a rat per kg body weight per day. When this dose of sucrose was given orally at one administration, it killed over 50% of the rats. Feeding the high sucrose synthetic diet to rats for 1 month increased the reaction to subsequent daily benzylpenicillin administration. Daily administration of benzylpenicillin for 1 month to rats on fox chow, however, reduced their susceptibility when they were transferred to the synthetic diet. The results were interpreted as indicating that the reaction was due mainly to the large amount of sucrose in the synthetic diet. Change in the intestinal flora, induced by administration of benzylpenicillin, appeared to be a secondary factor.