[Muricide induced by thiamine deficiency in the rats (author's transl)]

The emotional behavioral aspects and the interaction between the changes of the polyamine contents and muricide response in thiamine deficient rats were investigated. In the thiamine deficient group, there was evidence of muricide and such increased progressively with advanced thiamine deficient feeding. This muricide was characteristic in the following respects; 1) the killer-rats did not eat but only kill a mouse and it was quite difficult to remove a sacrificed animal from the cage. 2) they bit at random into any body region of the mouse. 3) the killer-rats did not bite inanimate objects such as nails nor chalk. 4) the muricide induced by thiamine deficiency could not be suppressed by a single injection of thiamine HCl. On the 30th day of the experimental feeding, both spermidine and spermine levels in the brain of the thiamine deficient group decreased significantly as compared to the control and the pair-fed groups. Both spermidine and spermine levels were reversed to the control levels with a intraperitoneal administration of thiamine. There were no significant differences in spermine and spermidine levels between the killer-rats and non-killer-rats in the thiamine deficient group.