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Choline, Hepatic Fat and Insulin Polyphagia¹

Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

To investigate the effect of polyphagia on per cent of dietary choline requirements, young adult, male, Wistar rats were fed ad libitum a diet marginally adequate in choline content and given injections of insulin twice daily. Control rats received saline. The rats treated with insulin became polyphagic and gained more weight than those treated with saline. The percentage of dietary choline required to prevent centrolobular hepatic fatty change was not altered in the polyphagic animals. But their livers showed accumulations of abnormal amounts of stainable lipid in periportal parenchymal cells. Addition of a supplement of 0.50% of choline chloride to the diet did not prevent the accumulation of periportal fat associated with insulin-injection and polyphagia, although the supplement resulted in lesser amounts of centrolobular fat in both insulin-treated and saline-treated animals. These results demonstrated that (1) insulin-treatment and associated polyphagia with acceleration of weight-gain in rats was not attended by accumulation of stainable fat in centrolobular hepatic parenchymal cells; (2) insulin-treatment and polyphagia resulted in an abnormal accumulation of fat in periportal regions; (3) the periportal fatty change was not affected by dietary choline supplements (0.50%); and (4) therefore, insulin-treatment and its associated effects did not increase the per cent of dietary choline requirement.

This experiment again demonstrates that the physiopathology of the liver varies from one portion of the lobule to another.

² Trainee in Experiment Pathology under U.S.P.H.S. Grant no. 2G-66.

Manuscript received 21 July 1959.