IX. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 371 



buting factor, but there is also a specific effect from the B vitamin supple- 

 ments. 



C. PATHOLOGY IN HUMAN BEINGS 

 A. T. MILHORAT 



Evidence of a specific need for inositol by human beings has not been 

 presented, nor have symptoms of deficiency of inositol in humans been 

 described. However, the wide distribution of inositol in the body^^"** and 

 the data accumulated in investigations in animals make it reasonable to 

 predict that increased knowledge probably will demonstrate an important 

 role of inositol in the human organism. The observations of Best and 

 others^^ on the lipotropic action of inositol and choline were made in ani- 

 mals maintained on diets deficient in this substance. These observations 

 form the basis for the use of inositol in the management of fatty infiltra- 

 tion and cirrhosis of the liver in patients, but when one considers that 

 these abnormalities may be due to a variety of causes, of which inositol 

 deficiency probably is of great rarity and perhaps even non-existent, the 

 paucity of evidence on the therapeutic usefulness of inositol in liver disease 

 is not surprising. 



Ariel et alJ^ found a high incidence of fatty infiltration of the liver in 

 patients with gastrointestinal cancer. In 28 fasted patients Abels et al.^^ 

 observed an average concentration of 16.4 g. of fat in 100 g. of wet liver 

 tissue. The administration of 280 mg. of inositol to 10 patients and of 

 1200 mg. to 8 patients 10 hours before the operation appeared to reduce the 

 amounts of fat in the liver, since the average concentration in the first 

 group was 8.2 g. per 100 g. of wet liver tissue, and in the second group 6.9 g., 

 representing, in the authors' opinion, reductions of 50 and 58 %, respectively. 

 Lipocaic and choline similarly reduced the concentration of fat in the liver. 

 It was concluded, on the basis of comparative experiments, that the effect 

 of lipocaic could not be explained entirely by the choline content of the 

 lipocaic but may be due to the inositol content .^^' ^^ Echaurren and Jor- 



^' F. Rosenberger, Hoppe-Seyler's Z. physiol. Chem. 64, 341 (1910). 



^^ L. B. Winter, /. Physiol. 103, 27 P (1944). 



« J. Needham, Biochem. J. {London) 18, 891 (1924). 



^« J. Folch and D. W. Woolley, J. Biol. Chem. 142, 963 (1942). 



" C. H. Best, C. C. Lucas, J. H. Ridout, and J. M. Patterson, /. Biol. Chem. 186, 

 317 (1950). 



« I. M. Ariel, J. C. Abels, H. T. Murphy, G. T. Pack, and C. P. Rhoads, Ann. In- 

 ternal Med. 20, 570 (1944). 



^9 J. C. Abels, C. W. Kupel, G. T. Pack, and C. P. Rhoads, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. 

 Med. 54, 157 (1943). 



^0 J. C. Abels, I. M. Ariel, H. T. Murphy, G. T. Pack, and C. P. Rhoads, Ann. Internal 

 Med. 20, 580 (1944). 



