Histopathomorphologic changes in the organs and tissues of laboratory animals receiving an artificial diet with a low selenium and vitamin E content

: The deficiency of selenium and vitamin "E" is not infrequently noted to occur in agricultural and game-animals. Its development in humans is not ruled out. Experiments set up on mice of the CC57 lineage fed on an artificial ration with a low selenium and vitamin "E" content showed an acute selenium and vitamin "E" deficit apt to call forth profound histopathomorphological changes that become apparent following hematoxylin-eosin staining in the pancreas, liver, heart, kidneys, testes and muscular tissue. Evidence was obtained for the first time that an acute selenium and vitamin "E" deficiency leads up to a drastic fall in the content of zinc, determined by the sulfargentic method, as well as in the insular cells of the pancreas, in the renal parenchyma and in the cells of the spermatogenic epithelium of the testes.