The effect of choline on the fatty liver of carbon tetrachloride poisoning

IN a previous communication [Best, MacLean & Ridout, 1935] it was shown that when rats maintained on a diet low in lipotropic factors were poisoned with phosphorus, addition of choline to the diet had no effect on the degree of fatty infiltration or damage to the hepatic cells. On the other hand, the addition of choline increased the rate of removal of excess fat which was present in the livers of the poisoned animals. Since it is well known that diets low in choline result in the accumulation of fat in the liver, it was not possible to differentiate between the liver fat which was present due to the lack of choline and that which was caused by phosphorus poisoning. Maintenance of animals on a diet with added choline, sufficient partially to counterbalance the effect of the low-choline diet, should result in a more marked difference in the amounts of fat present in the livers of the poisoned and control animals. This should make it possible to determine if the addition of choline exerts an effect on the fat which has accumulated as a result of the poisoning. This procedure was therefore adopted in the present investigation. Carbon tetrachloride was used in the experiment to be described, since this material produces very fatty livers and the degree of poisoning is more easily controlled than with phosphorus.