CHOLINE 



inositol was added to the diet. Diets deficient in pyridoxine or 

 essential fatty acids produced fatty livers even when supplied with 

 adequate amounts of choline. The addition of choline to the diet 

 reduced the incidence of lesions in the fore-stomach of rats receiving 

 cystine and white flour.^ The cirrhosis produced in rats by feeding a 

 choline-deficient diet was prevented by hypothyroidism induced either 

 by thyroidectomy or by feeding thiouracil, ^-aminobenzoic acid or 

 sulphonamides.* 



Other symptoms produced by choline deficiency in rats were 

 anaemia,^ hypertension,® enlargement of the adrenal cortex and 

 atrophy of the thymus.'' 



Chicks 



According to T. H. Jukes, ^ the perosis that developed in chicks 

 maintained on a purified diet was cured by choline when manganese 

 was present, but L. R. Richardson and A. G. Hogan ^ found that the 

 perosis was not cured by choline and manganese alone, requiring in 

 addition an aqueous extract of liver or the eluate from a fuller's earth 

 adsorbate of liver. Methionine did not cure the perosis.^ 



According to D. S. McKittrick,i^ the choline required by chicks 

 may be divided into two parts. One part, the essential choline, is 

 used in tissue formation, and the other part, the replaceable choline, 

 in transmethylation (page 600). 



Turkeys 



Turkeys, like chicks, developed perosis on a choline-deficient diet. 

 The symptoms were cured by choline, but not by betaine.^^' ^^ 



Dogs 



A choline-deficient diet, devised by McKibbin et al.,^^ proved fatal 

 to pups in three weeks. The animals showed fatty infiltration of the 

 liver, an increase in the plasma phosphatase, impaired bromosulphon- 

 phthalein elimination and a fall in the plasma cholesterol and chole- 

 steryl esters. In very severe cases, the prothrombin time was also 

 increased, the blood haemoglobin was decreased and the haematocrit 

 and plasma proteins were reduced. The total cholesterol content of 

 the liver was unchanged, but the total lipins increased 3- to 4-fold. 

 The ratio, liver weight /body weight, was not correlated with the 

 choline content of the diet, but the morphological changes in the 

 liver were correlated with the impairment of liver function. 1* The 

 kidneys were not morphologically abnormal, and the only tissue 

 affected besides the liver was the thymus, which showed atrophic 

 changes. The addition of choline to the diet of choline-deficient pups 



590 



