Nutrition Studies in the Cold

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Abstract
Young male rats received hypolipotropic diets containing 20% protein and 20% fat, with and without 1% cholesterol. Comparable groups were maintained at 25° and 1°C. Rats on the low-cholesterol diet at 25° had a marked accumulation of hepatic triglycerides during the initial 21-day period, while at 1°, triglyceride increase was not observed. Thus, cold exhibited a preventive lipotropic effect on “fat” fatty livers. Cholesterol-fed rats at 25° developed yellow fatty livers characterized by a high level of esterified cholesterol. Similar animals at 1° had even greater increases in liver lipides due to a further elevation of the esterified cholesterol level, while the triglyceride fraction was reduced by cold. During a second 21-day curative study, rats with “fat” and “cholesterol” fatty livers were maintained at 25° or transferred to 1°. Cold had a curative lipotropic action on hepatic triglycerides in rats on both diets. Livers of rats on the low-sterol diet at 1° had a normal level and distribution of liver lipide fractions, while in cholesterol-fed rats, cholesterol esters accumulated further at both temperatures. The effect was more pronounced at 1°. Thus, cold had both preventive and curative lipotropic effects on “fat” fatty livers, and an independent “anti-lipotropic” action on the “cholesterol” fatty liver in rats.