X. EFFECTS OP DEFICIENCY 67 



of this syndrome, as is the magnitude of fatty infiltration, is influenced by 

 the intake of food and, in particular, by the adequacy of the caloric intake.''^^ 

 McArthur and Lucas emphasized the inhibitory effect of triethylcholine on 

 appetite,^^ and Strength ei al. suggested that this compound was not only 

 not a substitute for choline but that it functioned as an antimetabolite.^^ 

 No obvious explanation can be given for the protective action of atabrine 

 against hemorrhagic degeneration, ^^ unless it spares choline by inhibition 

 of choline oxidase.^* 



Results do not permit an unequivocal conclusion regarding the mech- 

 anism of this choline effect in the kidney of the rat. Jacobi et al. were not 

 able to demonstrate any lack of choline in affected kidneys,-^- " but Pat- 

 terson and McHenry found a significant decrease in renal phospholipids.^^- ^^ 

 The lesion has been reported to be associated with a low activity of alkaline 

 and acid phosphatase in the renal tubules.'*'^ 



Hemorrhagic manifestations in weanling rats on low choline diets have 

 been described in the eyes,-- ^' ^^-^^ heart muscle, ^^ liver,'^ adrenals,i^ and 

 brain,^^ as well as in the kidneys. The observation by Jervis^^ that hemor- 

 rhagic lesions of the cerebellum occurred in young rats of mothers fed a 

 low choline diet after the eighth day of pregnancy followed the report of 

 Gyorgy and Goldblatt that the young of mothers on choline-deficient diets 

 developed a fatal paralysis. ^^ This finding cannot be ascribed to changes in 

 the brain phospholipids, according to Foa et al}* 



2. Fatty Liver 



MacLean and Best described the histological picture of the rat liver 

 loaded with fat because of choline deficiency,^^ and this has been amplified 

 by Hartroft^^'" with particular reference to the development of experi- 



21 D. J. Mulford and W. H. Griffith, J. Nutrition 23, 91 (1942). 



" C. S. McArthur and C. C. Lucas, Biochem. J. 46, 226 (1950). 



" D. R. Strength, E. A. Schaefer, and W. D. Salmon, /. Nutrition 45, 329 (1951). 



" D. M. Hegsted, J. M. McKibbin, and F. J. Stare, J. Nutrition 27, 149 (1944). 



25 B. Kelley, Federation Proc. 11, 238 (1952). 



2« H. P. Jacobi, C. A. Baumann, and W. J. Meek, /. Biol. Chem. 138, 571 (1941). 



" H. P. Jacobi and C. A. Baumann, J. Biol. Chem. 142, 65 (1942). 



28 J. M. Patterson, N. B. Keevil, and E. W. McHenry, J. Biol. Chem. 153, 489 (1944). 



28 J. M. Patterson and E. W. McHenry, J. Biol. Chem. 156, 265 (1944). 



"> M. Wachstein, Arch. Pathol. 38, 297 (1944). 



31 J. G. Bellows and H. Chinn, Arch. Ophthalmol. (Chicago) 30, 105 (1943). 



32 P. Gyorgy, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 49, 525 (1948). 



" G. A. Jervis, Proc. Sac. Exptl. Biol. Med. 51, 193 (1942). 



^* P. P. Foa, H. R. Weinstein, and B. Kleppel, Arch. Biochem. 19, 209 (1948). 



36 D. L. MacLean and C. H. Best, Brit. J. Exptl. Pathol. 15, 193 (1934). 



3« W. S. Hartroft, Rept. Ann. Meeting and Proc. Roy. College Phys. Surg. (Canada) 



p. 120 (Nov. 2^26, 1949). 

 " W. S. Hartroft, Anat. Record 106, 61 (1950). 



