The liver-lipid constituents of male and female rats. 2. Effects of the fat-deficiency syndrome, aggravated by dietary cholesterol

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Abstract
The liver vitamin A stores of fat-deficient male rats fed on a diet containing cholesterol (1%) did not differ significantly from those of controls which received linoleic acid. The liver vitamin A stores of fat-deficient female rats fed on a 1% cholesterol diet were 48% lower than those of their controls which had been given linoleic acid. The addition of cholesterol to a fat-free diet aggravated fat deficiency as judged by more rapid cessation of growth at a lower body weight. Both effects were appreciably more pronounced in males than in females. Cholesterol-supplementation of the diet caused much larger accumulations of cholesteryl esters in livers than are caused by fat deficiency alone. The effect was much greater in males. Linoleic acid (100 mg/day) did not alter the severity of this phenomenon in males; a smaller dose (25 mg/day) reduced the effect considerably in females. The rise in liver triglyceride concentration caused by fat deficiency was not altered by adding cholesterol to the diet. Cholesterol caused an increase in the concentrations of polyunsaturated acids in triglycerides, both in deficient animals and their controls. This effect was more pronounced in males. Dietary cholesterol decreased the concentrations of dienoic and tetraenoic acids, particularly the latter, in the liver phospholipids of control animals. Both effects were appreciably greater in males than in females. Dietary cholesterol consistently raised the trienetetraene ratio of liver phospholipids. Dietary cholesterol invariably raised the diene:tetraene ratio in total liver lipids, phospholipids and triglycerides, and lowered this value in the triglycerides. These effects occurred both in deficient animals and in controls.