Original Communications Nutritional and Metabolic Characterization of a Thiamine-Deficient Rat Model

ABSTRACT. The effects of a thiamine-deficient diet on plasma and tissue vitamin concentrations and on whole-body glucose metabolism were assessed. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (175 to 200 g body weight) fed a thiamine-deficient (TD) or nutritionally complete purified diet were used for plasma thiamine mononitrate and monophosphate and for red blood cell and tissue thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) determinations weekly for up to 5 weeks. Additional rats were used for assessment of basal glucose kinetics by using a primed constant infusion of [3-H]glucose. Plasma thiamine mononitrate levels decreased 60 % at 1 week and were undetectable after 5 weeks on the diet. Plasma thiamine monophosphate decreased 80 % after 1 week on the TD diet, and levels were undetectable after 4 weeks on the diet. Red blood cell TPP in the TD group decreased progressively with time: 54 % at 1 week, 86 % at