Improved Diets for Nutritional and Pathologic Studies of Choline Deficiency in Young Rats

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Abstract
Diets were developed which consistently produced a fatal toxicity in young growing rats of either sex in from 6 to 10 days. The symptoms consisted of inactivity, abdominal distention, palpably enlarged kidneys, labored breathing, coma, and, in some cases, eye hemorrhage and vertigo. Microscopic examination revealed severe hemorrhage in the kidney cortex, varying degrees of hemorrhage in the adrenals, lungs, myocardium and lymph nodes, massive deposits of fat in the liver cells and atrophy of the thymus. A high nonprotein nitrogen in the blood and a positive xanthydrol reaction indicated uremia. Choline chloride (10 or 20 mg. per rat per day) prevented these symptoms. The advisability of routine choline supplements to purified diets in nutrition investigations with the rat has been emphasized.

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