Susceptibility of vitamin A-deficient and starved rats and mice to a peroral infection withSalmonella typhi-murium

Abstract

Green & Mellanby (1928, 1930) were the first to direct attention to a specific relationship between vitamin A deficiency and infection. They studied the occurrence of spontaneous infections in vitamin A-deficient rats and concluded that animals fed on a diet deficient in vitamin A, but complete in all other respects, develop multiple infective lesions and die. Since then vitamin A has become known as the ‘anti-infective’ vitamin.