The Effect of Choline on the Lipid Metabolism of Blood and Liver in the Completely Depancreatized Dog Maintained with Insulin*

Previous studies from thislaboratory (1,2) have shown that pancreas contains two factors active in the lipid metabolism of the depancreatized dog maintained with insulin: (1) a heat-labile blood factor, the ingestion of which causes a rise above normal in all blood lipid constituents, in particular cholesterol; this factor is partially or completely destroyed when pancreas is subjected to autoclaving at 20 pounds steam pressure for 30 minutes; (2) a heat-stable liver factor, the administration of which prevents the deposition of fat in the liver; this factor is not destroyed by the above heat treatment. The curative action of lecithin on the fatty liver of the depancreatized dog receiving insulin was discovered by Hershey (3). A later study by Best and his coworkers (4) showed that its active constituent is choline, and these workers ascribe the action of pancreas on the liver to its choline content. Dragstedt and his coworkers (5), however, claim to have ruled out choline as the active factor in the pancreas. For 2 to 4 weeks they fed depancreatized dogs choline in amounts up to 700 mg. daily (the latter amount being that contained in approximately250 gm. of pancreas) and this treatment failed to cure fatty livers. But it was found in this laboratory (2) that raw pancreas, even when fed in amounts