FATS AS ESSENTIAL DIETARY COMPOXEXTS 861 



five to eight hours after the removal of the U^^er, and INIarkowitz and 

 Soskin^" extended this survival time somewhat beyond this period by a 

 modification in the operative procedure, it is impossible to circumvent 

 an early fatal outcome following complete remoA-al of the liver. On the 

 other hand, because of the rapid regeneration of liver tissue, it is possible 

 to remove as much as 70% of the organ in rabbits and still permit survival 

 for several weeks.^' This offers an opportunity to test the nutritive effi- 

 ciency of various diets in stimulating the regeneration of such tissue. 

 Although Brues and collaborators^^ reported that the rate of regeneration 

 of the liver cells of rats was slower, when fat was the chief dietary com- 

 ponent, than when protein or carbohydrate served in this capacity, Rogers 

 and his associates'^ reported that a moderately high-fat diet does serve 

 as efficaciously in permitting a new growth of liver tissue as do rations low 

 in fat. Actually when rats on a 30% diet fat were limited in caloric intake 

 to that of animals on the 3% fat regimen, a significantly higher nitrogen 

 balance, and a higher increment of protein in the liver, as well as a greater 

 increase in body weight, obtained in the high -fat group. When ad libitum 

 feeding was employed, the rats did considerably better when they received 

 the high-fat diet than when they were offered the low-fat regimen. 



e. Alloxan Diabetes. High-fat diets have frequently been recommended 

 ill diabetes mellitus in human patients. The diabetic organism can exten- 

 sively utilize the calories from fat, which is impossible in the case of car- 

 bohydrate. However, there is always the difficulty that the increased fat 

 intake may exaggerate the existing ketonuria. 



Burn and associates^* pointed out that glycosuria disappears in rats 

 which have been rendered diabetic with alloxan when a high-fat diet (80 

 to 90%) is substituted for a normal diet containing 10% of fat. Janes 

 and Prosser^* confirmed these findings in the case of twenty adult male 

 diabetic rats. It was found that, when the amount of dietary fat was 

 increased progressively at weekly interv^als for as long as the rats could 

 tolerate the diet, or until the 60% level of fat in the diet was reached, the 

 sugar le-\'els in the blood and urine remained low, and most of the animals 

 gained weight. In fact, when ten of these animals were again given the 

 basic diet for three weeks and the severity of the diabetes was compared 

 vdih. that of the original basic period, it was found that in 50% of the cases 

 there was some improvement in the diabetic symptoms. The weight gain 



«> J. Markowitz and S. So.ikin, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 25, 7-8 (1927). 

 8' P. D. McMaster and D. R. Drnry, J. Exptl. Med., 49, 745-758 (1929). 

 82 A. M. Brues, D. R. Dnuy, and M. C. Brues, Arch. Pathol.. 22, 058-673 (19.3(3). 

 8' J. H. Burn, T. H. C. Lewis, and F. D. Kelsey, Brit. Med. J., 19U, II , 752-754. 

 8^ R. G. Janes and M. Prosser, Am. J. Physiol, 151, 581-587 (1947). 



