[Changes in lipid composition of mucosa secretion from chick glandular stomach intermediate zone in A-vitaminosis]

The lipid composition of secretion and the vitamin A content in it were studied. Secretion of normal chickens is shown to contain 96 +/- 3.1 mg of lipids, 82.5 +/- 3.4 of substances extracted by the solvent hexane-diethyl ester, 30 +/- 2.1 of unsaponifiable lipids and 2.43 +/- 0.285 micrograms of vitamin A per 1 g of dry residue. With A-avitaminosis the secretion amount is twice as large with vitamin A absent; the lipid content is almost twice as low, the total weight of substances extracted by the solvent hexane-diethyl ester is four times as low and that of the lipid unsaponifiable fraction--2.5 times as low. Quantitative and qualitative changes in lipid zones were detected by means of thin-layer chromatography and UV-spectroscopy, and structural changes in the secretion--by electron microscopy. Vitamin A is suggested to participate in formation of macromolecular lipid systems of the secretion.