EFFECT OF DEFICIENCY IN ANIMALS 



resulted in a rapid increase in food consumption and weight, an 

 improvement in liver function and the withdrawal of lipin from the 

 liver ; ^^ liver function was restored to normal within five to ten days. 

 Choline chloride cured fat embolism produced in dogs by bone 

 marrow curettage. ^^ The action of the pancreatic extract known as 

 lipocaic/^ which prevented fatty infiltration of the liver in depan- 

 creatised dogs, was shown to be due to its choline content. ^^ 



Other Animals 



Fatty infiltration of the liver is not a symptom of choline deficiency 

 in guinea-pigs, which appear to lack hepatic choline oxidase activity.^^ 

 Hamsters develop fatty livers on a choline-deficient diet, but not to 

 the same degree as rats.^o Pigs also develop fatty livers, gain weight 

 more slowly than normal animals, display inco-ordination and a lack 

 of rigidity at the joints and suffer from renal glomerular occlusion and 

 some tubular epithelial necrosis. ^^ 



Fish 



Choline was essential for young rainbow trout, the fish developing 

 haemorrhagic kidneys and intestines in its absence ; these symptoms 

 were prevented by 5 to 10 mg. of choline per 100 g. of diet.^^ 



Lipotropic Action of Choline and Inositol 



The lipotropic action of choline and inositol together was greater 

 than that of either alone. ^^ Moreover, choline brought about a 

 greater reduction in the cholesteryl ester content of the liver than did 

 inositol. ^^ According to Gavin et al.,^^ choline was effective in the 

 treatment of fatty livers due to aneurine and partially effective for 

 cholesterol fatty livers, but it had little effect on biotin fatty livers, 

 whereas inositol was effective in the treatment of biotin fatty livers, 

 but not of aneurine fatty livers. According to Best et al.,^^ however, 

 there is no evidence for assuming that biotin fatty livers are unique 

 or that inositol is more effective than choline in their treatment ; 

 they suggested that Gavin et al. overlooked the fact that the beef 

 liver fraction used by them to produce fatty livers contained choline, 

 so that the response to treatment was due to the combined effect of 

 choline and inositol and not to inositol alone as they apparently 

 assumed. Best et al. furthermore showed that inositol had no pre- 

 ferential effect in reducing the amount of cholesteryl esters or gly- 

 cerides in the liver ; on the contrary, it was less effective than choline 

 in this respect, and it did not prevent, as did choline or methionine, 

 the occurrence of haemorrhagic kidneys. They confirmed the syner- 

 gistic effect of choline and inositol on liver lipins. Neither had any 



591 



