Metabolism of Choline by Slices of Fatty Livers From Choline-Deficient Rats

¹ From the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Fatty livers were produced in rats by a choline-deficient diet and the metabolism of slices from the livers was studied. The addition of choline increased the qo₂ of slices of fatty liver more than it did the qo₂ of control slices. The qco₂ and R.Q. of both types of slices decreased in the presence of choline. For both the control and the fatty liver slices, an increased concentration of an unidentified material, (probably not betaine aldehyde), which reacted with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine was found whenever the respiration medium contained choline. Fatty liver slices produced more of this substance relative to oxygen uptake.