The Lipotropic Effect of Protein

Abstract

EVIDENCE that proteins or substances closely associated with proteins exert a lipotropic effect has been reported previously from these departments1,2. In the latter paper it was shown that when rats with fatty livers were placed on a choline-free diet consisting exclusively of sucrose, an increase of some 8 per cent of liver fat was observed to take place within six days. In a comparable experiment in which the ration contained 20 per cent protein as fat-free and vitamin-free casein and 80 per cent sucrose, no increase in liver fat was observed at the end of six days. It was also shown that 5 mgm. of choline exerted a very definite effect on the liver fat of animals receiving a diet low in choline and containing 20 per cent fat. This effect may be regarded as much greater than that of the casein, and the results of more recent experiments indicate that as little as 1 mgm. of choline daily exerts at least as great a lipotropic effect as 2 gm. of the alcohol and ether washed casein which we have used.