88 CHOLINE 



Morgan and Lewis noted the absence of fatty livers in rats on diets lack- 

 ing both choline and pantothenic acid.^*^ They concluded that fat metabo- 

 lism was seriously deranged in these animals because of a depression of 

 adrenal activity resulting from the lack of pantothenic acid. 



Honorato and his associates suggested that choline plays a role in the 

 antihemorrhagic activity of 2-methyl-l,4-naphthoquinone and reported 

 that the latter showed lipotropic activity .^^^ An antagonism between heparin 

 and choline with inactivation of the former^^^ was not confirmed.^^^ Lecoq 

 ei al. observed that the effect of dietary cystine on chronaxie of rats was 

 corrected by vitamin K plus choline.^" 



5. Other Effects 



In the preceding discussion, emphasis has been placed on the renal and 

 hepatic changes that appear in choline-deficient rats. Many other effects 

 of the deficiency syndrome have been recognized, some traceable directly 

 to previous abnormalities in the kidneys and liver. Of unusual interest has 

 been the observation of Best and Hartroft,^' ^^^ confirmed by others,^'^' ^^^ 

 that hypertension developed in rats 4 to 7 months after the onset of acute 

 choline deficiency even though fed a normal diet subsequent to the acute 

 episode. It had been demonstrated previously by Sobin and Landis that 

 hypertension did not result from a prolonged chronic deficiency of choline,^^^ 

 and Handler el al. noted that hypertension in partially nephrectomized 

 rats disappeared if a choline-deficient diet was fed.^^ A partial solution of 

 this anomalous situation in which damage occurred as a result of restora- 

 tion of a normal diet was afforded by the demonstration that the hyperten- 

 sion following acute deficiency was prevented by decapsulation of the 

 kidneys.2^2 This suggested that the damaged capsule restricted the increase 

 in size of the recovering kidney as it developed on the normal diet and that 

 hypertension was the ultimate result as in the case of animals in which 

 hypertension was induced by coating the kidney with cellophane or other 

 restrictive materials. 



In studies on the carcinogenic action of p-dimethylaminoazobenzene 



233 A. F. Morgan and E. M. Lewis, J. Biol. Chem. 200, 839 (1952). 



234 C. R. Honorato and H. Molina, Rev. soc. argentina biol. 18, 431 (1942). 



236 V. A. Cabezas and C. R. Honorato, Bol. soc. biol. Santiago Chile 2, 26 (1944). 



236 G. W. Howe and C. L. Spurr, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 71, 429 (1949). 



237 R. Lecoq, P. Chauchard, and H. Mazoue, Compt. rend. soc. biol. 141, 220 (1947). 



238 W. S. Hartroft and C. H. Best, Brit. Med. J. I, 423 (1949). 



239 C. Moses, G. M. Longabaugh, and R. S. George, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 75, 

 660 (1950). 



2" P. Handler and F. Bernheim, Am. J. Physiol. 162, 189 (1950). 

 "1 S. S. Sobin and E. M. Landis, Am. J. Physiol. 148, 557 (1947). 

 2« P. Handler and F. Bernheim, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 76, 338 (1951). 



