Choline Metabolism

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A dietary deficiency of choline and of the labile methyl supply in young rats produces a marked elevation of the nonprotein nitrogen of the blood coincident with renal hemorrhagic degeneration. Survival, renal repair and resumption of growth depend upon the severity of the acute phase. The aggravating effect of dietary cholesterol is prevented by choline during the crucial 8-day period but not during a subsequent 30-day period. Supplements of thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine, calcium pantothenate, ascorbic acid, vitamin K and “vitamin P” do not affect the severity of the results of labile methyl deficiency whereas nicotinic acid exerts a moderate choline-opposing action. Hemorrhagic degeneration, which is severe if diets are fed ad libitum, may be prevented by partial restriction of the consumption of food. The deposition of liver fat or the appearance of renal hemorrhage in experiments in which a dietary supplement increases the consumption of food or the rate of growth is not necessarily evidence of a direct antagonism between choline and the dietary supplement.