Effect of Choline, Methionine and Ethionine on Fat Absorption

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Abstract
In agreement with an earlier report, the rate of fat absorption was found by two methods to be accelerated when fat was supplemented with choline. The inability of the injected choline to aid emulsification as well as the failure of various hydrotropic substances to affect the rate of fat absorption suggests that lecithin as well as choline are otherwise involved in the absorptive process. The supplements of prostigmine and mecholyl used failed to affect the rate of fat absorption. This supplied evidence to indicate that the effect of choline on the absorptive process cannot be that of a cholinergic one, but may be solely the result of an increased production of lecithin. The slight effect of a methionine supplement on the promotion of fat absorption might be the result of a failure to supply more physiological amounts continuously or of a synthetic process too slow to produce sufficient choline to be more effective. The significantly increased blood fat levels after the use of ethionine as a fat supplement might be associated with its reported liberation of a considerable amount of free methionine. This might well account for the accelerated rate of fat absorption, if the latter were continuously available in suitable quantities for additional choline and phospholipid formation which may in some way aid the passage of the fat into the intestinal mucosa.