ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the biochemical and pathological (morphologic) alterations that occur in cells, tissues, and organs of animals fed a diet deficient in L-tryptophan. Such deficiency disease may be induced in experimental animals by causing a single nutrient to be lacking in the diet. Such conditions are infrequently encountered in naturally occurring nutritional disease of animals and humans. Under most circumstances multiple deficiencies exist, which makes the interpretation complex. Also, the induction
of a nutritional deficiency by omission of a single dietary component of an otherwise nutritionally adequate diet in
ad libitum
feeding experiments must be subject to close scrutiny, as will be discussed subsequently. However, this chapter attempts to present experimental results from many studies that were designed and controlled in a variety of ways. It is necessary to keep this in mind as one reviews the findings.
