Lathyrism in Mice

Abstract

IT is known that rats fed on a diet containing 50 per cent sweet-pea (Lathyrus odoratus) seed develop severe bony deformities, and that if young animals are used a proportion die of rupture of the aorta^1,2; β-amino-propionitrile has a similar effect³. Few workers had previously attempted to produce lathyrism in mice, and their reports suggested that mice were refractory. Preliminary experiments, however, showed that aortic lesions in mice could be obtained, and while this work was in progress Dasler and Milliser⁴ reported the production of aortic lesions in male weanling mice by feeding them on L. odoratus seeds ; injection of high doses of β-amino-propio-nitrile gave, in addition, bony lesions. Experiments were continued with the aim either of confirming Dasler and Milliser's work and producing lathyrism in a cheap and easily handled animal or, if the mouse were resistant, of using this difference in response between two such closely related species as the rat and the mouse for investigation of the pathogenesis of lathyrism.