Reversibility of Arteriosclerosis in Pyridoxine-deficient Monkeys

In 1948, Rinehart and Greenberg reported on the arteriosclerosis in pyridoxine-deficient monkeys. In this paper, authors investigated the recovery of monkeys, kept on the pyridoxine-deficient diet for 12 months, during the period of being switched back to the control diet. The weight of monkeys rapidly increased for three or four months after being discontinued the deficient diet, and then reached gradually of the weight of the control animals. Animals were killed after maintaining 2 months, 6 months and 12 months of the control diet. Their organs were weighed and compared with those in the deficient monkeys. Marked atrophy of the thymus and the increase in weight of the adrenal gland were observed in the deficient monkeys. After changing into the control diet, the atrophied thymus was most remarkably recovered, while some of the plaque in the abdominal aorta and renal artery remained after 12 months. Scarcely any sclerotic change was found in the coronary artery of the animals recovering from changes induced by deficient diet, indicating a pronounced reversibility of the sclerotic changes in pyridoxine-deficient animals.