The body vitamin B1 levels of rats fed a diet containing the minimum requirement of vitamin B1 is reduced by exercise.

It is thought that increasing energy expenditure increases consumption of vitamin B1, leading to an increase in the requirement of vitamin B1. However, evidence supporting this hypothesis is lacking. To examine the hypothesis, initially, we determined the minimum requirement of vitamin B1 for weaning rats. We found that the minimum requirement of vitamin B1 for optimum growth of weaning rats was around 0.786 mg thiamin/kg diet. Next, rats fed a diet containing the minimum requirement of vitamin B1 were forced to swim until exhaustion. Concentrations of vitamin B1 in the blood and liver as well as urinary excretion of swimming rats decreased significantly compared with those of non-swimming rats (p<0.05), while in rats fed the diet containing a sufficient amount of vitamin B1 (4.720 mg thiamin/kg diet), vitamin B1 amounts in the blood, liver and urine were not affected by swimming. We clearly and firstly showed the reduction of body vitamin B1 following increases in energy expenditure.