Abstract
SECTION I (Physiology) of the British Association devoted the morning session on September 9 to a discussion of "The Changing Aspects of Nutrition". Prof. J. R. Marrack introduced the subject with a review of work done on the relation of nutrition to infection. He pointed out that we are uncertain which nutrients are particularly involved in defence against infection and how the defences are weakened by malnutrition, particularly in human beings. In experimental animals deprived of vitamin A the ciliated columnar epithelium of the respiratory passages undergoes keratinizing metaplasia. Bacteria that get into the passages are not cleared out by cilia, and the passages are blocked by desquamated cells. In consequence the animals are liable to get broncho-pneumonia. It is not known how frequently this keratinizing metaplasia occurs in the respiratory passages of human beings. When it is found, the nutritionist ascribes it to lack of vitamin A, whereas the morbid anatomist thinks that it is caused by inflammation or irritation.
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Changing Aspects of Nutrition. Nature 162, 543–544 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162543a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162543a0