Pigmentation of the Sex Glands in Vitamin E Deficient Rats.

Abstract

Rats deprived of vitamin E for several months after weaning exhibit a faint brownish pigmentation of the uterus which gradually increases to chocolate-brown color as the deficiency progresses, and is associated with the gradual accumulation of coarse brownish granules within the smooth-muscle cells of the myometrium. A similar but somewhat less pronounced change occurs in the smooth musculature of the cervix, vagina, oviducts, seminal vesicle, and ureter, and also in the skeletal musculature (Martin and Moore,"3 14 Barrie, ' Hessler,'0 and Demole3). The smooth musculature of the digestive, respiratory, and vascular systems, and of the urinary bladder is said to be immune. Although a brownish discoloration of the testis and abdominal lymph nodes has been reported (Martin and Moore'4), no histological observations have been made and no explanation offered for the deposition of pigment in organs in which smooth-muscle cells are limited to those of associated blood vessels. The observations cited above have been generally confirmed and considerably extended by studies in this laboratory, as discussed briefly in a recent review (Mason"7) and presented in detail elsewhere (Mason and Emmel'8). By appropriate staining methods we have demonstrated that the granular changes in smooth-muscle cells are invariably associated with the appearaAce of connective tissue macrophages containing large numbers of similar granules.t These phagocytes are especially abundant in the myometrium and undoubtedly contribute much to the discoloration of the organ. Similar but smaller phagocytic cells also occur in association with the necrosis of skeletal muscle, and with that of cardiac muscle which we have noted after prolonged states of E deficiency. The presence of pigment-laden phagocytes in the lymph nodes and spleen and of pigment globules in the Kupffer cells of the liver