The Effect of Dietary Fat on the Development of Vitamin B6 Deficiency in the Rat

The effect of the level of dietary fat on the development of vitamin B6 deficiency and on the body composition of vitamin B6-deficient and pair-fed control rats was studied with diets in which the ratio of protein/food energy remained constant as the level of fat increased. In both deficient and control animals, the percentage of body fat increased as the percentage of dietary fat increased. Whether vitamin B6 deficiency reduced body fat depended upon the level of dietary fat: there was no significant difference between the deficient and control groups at 5 or 40% of cottonseed oil, but a significant decrease occurred in the deficient animals fed a 10 or 20% of cottonseed oil diet. Vitamin B6 deficiency also decreased the storage of liver cholesterol in cholesterol-fed rats.