LIPID STORAGE UNDER ABNORMAL CONDITIONS 681 



absorbed, and the fatty acid content of the liver is far greater than that 

 present as cholesterol ester. A clue to the difficulty was given by Perlman 

 and Chaikoff, 732,850 who found that the incorporation of P 32 into the livers of 

 rats given cholesterol was diminished; however, the rate of phospholipid 

 turnover could be increased in the cholesterol-fed rats by choline. 850 The 

 effect of lipocaic on cholesterol fatty livers has been discussed in an earlier 

 section. 



(/) Fatty Livers Resulting from the Administration of Liver or of Liver Ex- 

 tracts {Biotin Fatty Livers). Blatherwick and his associates 851 reported, in 

 1931, that fatty livers developed in rats fed a diet of dried whole liver. The 

 fatty livers were shown to contain large proportions of cholesterol esters and 

 of fat, and it was suggested that this effect might be attributed to the 

 cholesterol in the liver fed. However, McHenry and Gavin 852 were able to 

 produce fatty infiltration in the liver by the administration of aqueous 

 extracts of liver, which, of course, ruled out cholesterol as the causative 

 agent. The hypothesis was then adduced that biotin in the liver extract 

 was the factor responsible for producing the fatty livers, since the type of 

 fatty liver produced by the injection of biotin resembled that which de- 

 veloped after liver or liver extract had been given. Both types were resist- 

 ant to choline, but responded to lipocaic, as well as to extracts prepared in 

 a manner similar to that employed for lipocaic derived from liver, kidne}'', 

 muscle, wheat germ, rice polishings, and yeast. 802 They also responded to 

 egg white and to inositol. 853 In the more recent work of MacFarland and 

 McHenry 854 it was demonstrated that biotin fatty livers were partially re- 

 sponsive to choline or to inositol, and that the fatty infiltration could be 

 entirely prevented by their presence in conjunction. On the other hand, 

 fatty livers produced by a beef liver fraction were resistant to choline. 

 This would seem to indicate that the fattening agent in the liver includes 

 some factor other than, or in addition to, biotin. 



(g) Fatty Livers Resulting from Imbalances of the B Vitamins. In addi- 

 tion to the fatty livers resulting from increased concentrations of biotin, or 

 from a lack of inositol, as described above, fatty livers are associated with a 

 number of other members of the B vitamins. Some of these are active be- 

 cause of a secondary effect on appetite, as, for example, thiamine, while 

 others owe their effectiveness to a resulting increase in the choline or inosi- 

 tol requirement. 



850 I. Perlman and I. L. Chaikoff, /. Biol. Chem., 128, 735-743 (1939). 



851 N. R. Blatherwick, E. M. Medlar, P. J. Bradshaw, A. L. Post, and S. D. Sawyer, 

 Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 29, 345-346 (1931). 



852 E. W. McHenry and G. Gavin, J. Biol. Chem., 134, 683-692 (1940). 



853 G. Gavin and E. W. McHenry, /. Biol. Chem., Ul, 619-625 (1941). 



854 M. L. MacFarland and E. W. McHenry, /. Biol. Chem., 159, 605-609 (1945). 



