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Effects of Potassium and Lysine Supplementation of Wheat Farina in Rat Diets¹

Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Four diets containing wheat farina as the sole source of protein (8%) were supplemented with zero and 0.31% of L-lysine hydrochloride and/or with salt mixtures containing zero and 0.41% of potassium, and fed ad libitum to 4 groups of weanling rats. The animals were decapitated at the end of 28 days; their livers were analyzed for moisture and lipid content, and their carcasses were analyzed for moisture, ash and potassium content.

The amount of carcass protein synthesized per gram of protein eaten was significantly improved by the addition of lysine to the diet, but not by the addition of potassium.

"Fatty livers" were observed in the rats fed the lysine-deficient diets, but not in the rats receiving the lysine-sufficient diets.

The groups fed diets deficient in lysine, in potassium and in both lysine and potassium contained 10, 35 and 40% less potassium in their carcasses, respectively, than the group fed the control diet adequate in both these nutrients.

The synthesis of carcass protein by weanling rats was not significantly affected by the potassium content of the farina diet containing 8% protein.

² Present address: State Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland.

Manuscript received 15 March 1961.