Cystine and the dietary production of fatty livers

Abstract

IN a previous paper it was shown that the amount of fat appearing in the livers of rats receiving a diet of low choline content (choline intake 1-5 mg. per rat per day) and containing 40 % of fat was controlled by the amount of caseinogen present in the diet.In a later paper the findings concerning this lipotropic action of caseinogen were extended to embrace the glyceride fraction of the "cholesterol" fatty liver [Channon and Wilkinson, 1935; Beeston et al. [1935],whilst more recently results were reported which suggested that the caseinogen used in our diets possessed a lipotropic action equivalent to 8 mg. of choline per g.[Beeston and Channon, 1935].In the first-mentioned paper it was suggested that further information concerning this control of liver fat by dietary protein fractions might be obtained by supplementing diets low in caseinogen with individual amino-acids, and a systematic study of this problem is in progress.The present paper records results already obtained with cystine.Contrary to the original expectation, it has been found that supplementing a diet low in choline and containing 5 % caseinogen and 40 % fat with small amounts of cystine causes a profound increase in the amount of liver fat.EXPERIMENTAL.The control groups of animals, 8-10 in each group, received a diet consisting of caseinogen 5, beef dripping 40, marmite 5, glucose 44, salt mixture 5 and cod- liver oil 1 part.Other groups received this diet supplemented with amounts of