FACTORS ALTERING CONCENTRATION OF BLOOD LIPIDS 481 



disease, after choline was given. This author 780 also noted a decrease in 

 cholesterol deposits in old hens after choline feeding. 



(b') Inositol. — Inositol, CeH^Oe, is another lipotropic agent which has 

 proved effective as a decholesterolizing agent. Herrmann 781 reported a 

 decrease in the cholesterol content of the arteries of hens after inositol 

 feeding while, in some later work, 779 he was able to demonstrate that this 

 substance decreased the blood cholesterol of patients with atheromas. The 

 reduction of cholesterol was accompanied by an increased phospholipid 

 content. Dotti and associates 782 reported that inositol also prevents the 

 expected rise in cholesterol and phospholipids in the serum of rabbits on 

 high-cholesterol diets. 



(c') Lecithin. — This phospholipid has been given both favorable and 

 unfavorable criticism insofar as its effect on atherosclerosis is concerned. 

 Although large doses of lecithin were found to be harmful, Downs 783 

 reported that this phospholipid, in small doses, protected the rabbit from 

 atherosclerosis when it was fed with cholesterol in varying proportions over 

 a four-month period. Similar findings were noted by Kesten and Silbo- 

 witz 784 when crude soya lecithin was used in a lecithin -.cholesterol ratio 

 of 6:1. However, Pollak 785 was unable to demonstrate any beneficial 

 effect on the part of lecithin when it was injected intravascularly along 

 with colloidal cholesterol. In fact, lecithin was shown to damage the 

 large blood vessels, in contradistinction to cholesterol, which acts more 

 frequently on the smaller arteries. 



(d') Heparin. — Although heparin can hardly be classed as a lipotropic 

 agent, it has recently been shown to have a pronounced effect in increasing 

 the solubility of lipoproteins and, by virtue of these properties, it must be 

 considered as playing an important role in atherosclerosis. Block and 

 collaborators 435 reported that the action of heparin was less in athero- 

 sclerotic male patients than it was in normal male and female subjects. 

 For a discussion of the action of heparin in relation to lowering lipemia, 

 the reader is referred to pages 426-430. 



1. The Blood Lipids in Diseases of the Central Nervous System. There 

 has been a more or less general belief that the central nervous system 

 controls fat metabolism in some manner. It has been known that obesity 



780 G. R. Herrmann, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 61, 302-304 (1946). 



781 G. R. Herrmann, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 63, 436-438 (1946). 



782 L. B. Dotti, W. C. Felch, and S. J. Ilka, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 78, 165-167 

 (1951). 



783 W. G. Downs, Jr., Am. Med., 41, 460 (1935). 



784 H. D. Kesten and R. Silbowitz, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 49, 71-73 (1942). 



785 O. J. Pollak, Geriatrics, 6, 73-80 (1951). 



