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Influence of Environmental Temperature and Vitamin-Deficiency Upon Phagocytic Functions

From the Laboratories for Experimental Medicine, University of Cincinnati

Abstract

Recent studies in this laboratory (1) have shown that tropical moist heat lowers resistance to infection in experimental animals, although this is not accompanied by any appreciably interference with normal antibody production. It seemed advisable, therefore, to investigate possible changes in the activity of the body's phagocytes at different levels of environmental temperature, to see whether a reduced phagocytic function might account for the findings. Since we had also found a marked heightening of thiamin- and choline-requirements in the heat (2, 3), there existed the possibility that vitamin-deficiency might be playing a part. Hence we decided to use only synthetic diets containing weighed amounts of crystalline vitamins, and to investigate the possible role of vitamin-deficiency and environmental temperature in otherwise normal phagocytic processes.

Most of the studies concerning the influence of vitamin-deficiency upon resistance to infection were made before the B complex had been separated into its component parts, so that the earlier interpretations of results were not clearcut.