Observations on some nutritional factors that influence the lipotropic activity of methionine

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Abstract
Some factors that influence the lipotropic activity of methionine in the young rat were investigated. In experiments of less than 4 weeks duration, fatty infiltration of the liver was evident in young rats when the choline in diets that permitted a satisfactory rate of growth was replaced by methionine. The extent of the fatty infiltration was greater when the diet contained 9% of casein and 12% of gelatin than when it contained 18% or more of casein. The greater fatty infiltration observed in rats receiving the diet containing gelatin was attributed to the low content of threonine and the high content of arginine and glycine in gelatin. No abnormal accumulation of liver fat was found in rats fed on either diet for more than 4 weeks, which suggests that the capacity of the young rat to synthesize choline increases as it matures and that the effect of gelatin is of significance only during the period of early growth, when relatively high-protein diets containing additional methionine in place of choline are fed. The significance of these factors in the investigation of the lipotropic activity of methionine is discussed.