The effect of the ingestion of a hypolipotropic diet on the level of pseudo-cholinesterase in the plasma of male rats

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Abstract
Ingestion of a hypolipotropic diet leads to a highly significant rise in pseudo-cholinesterase activity in the plasma of adult and weanling male rats. The activity of true cholinesterase and of ali-esterases in the plasma of these animals is unchanged. The elevation in plasma pseudocholinesterase activity is accompanied by a significant rise in liver pseudo-cholinesterase activity. Elevated levels of plasma pseudo-cholinesterase can be reduced to within the normal range by addition to the basal hypolipotropic diet of the lipotropic agents choline, betaine, methionine and the triethyl homolog of choline. Female rats fail to show this elevated plasma pseudo-cholinesterase level when their diet is hypolipotropic. A deficiency in lipotropic factors does not, therefore, seem to be the direct cause of the elevation in plasma pseudo-cholinesterase observed in male rats. The nature of the mechanism responsible for the elevation remains obscure.