642 VI. OCCURRENCE OF LIPIDS IN THE ANIMAL 



also confirmed the fact that choline could not counteract the development 

 in rats of fatty livers caused by the injection of extracts of the pituitary 

 hormone. 432 - 434,435 ' 589 However, they did note a reduction in the ketonu- 

 ria. 588 Although Julian, Dragstedt, and associates 590 stated that this type 

 of fatty liver can be prevented by lipocaic, MacKay and Barnes 588 disputed 

 this finding. 



Dietary cirrhosis of the liver, in which fatty infiltration is an invariable 

 concomitant, 591-593 was shown by Gyorgy and Goldblatt 593 to respond to 

 choline in doses of 10 to 20 mg. per rat. Since this type of cirrhosis invari- 

 ably developed on the deficient diet when casein was present to the extent 

 of only 10%, while its occurrence was quite erratic when a level of 18 to 20% 

 of casein was employed, 594 - 595 the suggestion was made that casein had 

 acted as a lipotropic agent in the latter instance. Blumberg and Mc- 

 Collum 596 - 597 were also able to produce a liver cirrhosis in rats on 10% casein 

 or skim milk diets. Since a number of workers 596 ' 598-600 have agreed that 

 conditions which result in the production of fatty livers in short-term ex- 

 periments lead to the development of cirrhosis when the experimental re- 

 gimen is continued over a long period, it is evident that the level of dietary 

 protein is related to the availability of choline. There is some evidence 

 that dietary carbohydrate may influence the lipotropic action of choline. 

 Thus, Artom and Fishman 601 found that the effectiveness of choline supple- 

 mentation in reducing fatty infiltration of the liver, and in augmenting the 

 level of liver lecithin, is considerably greater on a lactose diet than on one 

 containing dextrin and sucrose as the dietary carbohydrates. 



c'. The Lipotropic Action of Proteins: The first experimental evidence 

 that protein possesses a lipotropic action was that of Best and Huntsman, 602 

 who noted that casein had an effect similar to that of choline or betaine in 



689 C. H. Best and J. Campbell, /. Physiol, 92, 91-110 (1938). 



890 O. C. Julian, D. E. Clark, J. van Prohaska, C. Vermeulen, and L. R. Dragstedt, 

 Am. J. Physiol, 138, 264-268 (1943). 



591 C. L. Connor, Am. J. Pathol, 14, 347-364 (1938). 



592 C. L. Connor, J. Am. Med. Assoc, 112, 387-390 (1939). 



593 P. Gyorgy and H. Goldblatt, J. Exptl. Med., 75, 355-368 (1942). 



594 P. Gyorgy and H. Goldblatt, J. Exptl. Med., 70, 185-192 (1939). 



595 P. Gyorgy and H. Goldblatt, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 46, 492-494 (1941). 



596 H. Blumberg and E. V. McCollum, Science, 93, 598-599 (1941). 



697 H. Blumberg, U. S. Pub. Health Repts., 55, 531-537 (1940). 



698 G. Webster, J. Clin. Invest., 20, 440 (1941). 



599 R. D. Lillie, F. S. Daft, and W. H. Sebrell, Jr., U. S. Pub. Health Repts., 56, 1255- 

 1258 (1941). 



600 F. S. Daft, W. H. Sebrell, Jr., and R. D. Lillie, Proc. Soc. Exptl Biol. Med., 48, 228- 

 229(1941). 



601 C. Artom and W. H. Fishman, J. Biol. Chem., 170, 587-595 (1947). 



602 C. H. Best and M. E. Huntsman, J. Physiol, 83, 255-274 (1935). 



