The Effect of Chain Length of the Dietary Fatty Acid upon the Fatty Liver of Choline Deficiency

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Abstract
Each member of the homologous series of even-numbered fatty acids, from butyric to stearic, has been fed as ethyl ester, at a 35% level in the diet, to young male rats receiving no choline. The degree of fatty liver was found to increase markedly as the chain length of the dietary fatty acid decreased successively from 18- to 16- to 14-carbon atoms. No severe fatty livers were encountered when the ethyl esters of fatty acids of less than 12-carbon atoms were fed. Renal hemorrhage and necrosis occurred in several of the rats fed ethyl caprylate and a fatal myocarditis was encountered when ethyl laurate was fed.