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Alleviation of Methionine and Homocystine Toxicity in the Rat¹

Department of Meat and Animal Science and Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Alleviation of methionine and homocystine toxicity by various dietary supplements was examined. Rats fed a diet containing 10% casein and 3% of L-methionine gain only 2 to 3 g per week; this is significantly less than the growth of rats fed an equivalent amount (moles of sulfur/kg of diet) of DL-homocystine. Glycine and serine both alleviate, but do not prevent, the growth depressions caused by methionine and homocystine. Glycine appears to be more effective than serine in alleviating methionine toxicity but serine is more effective in alleviating homocystine toxicity. Glycine and serine appear to be quite specific in alleviating the toxicity because several other amino acids in equivalent amounts were ineffective. Rats appear to undergo some form of metabolic adaptation to high intakes of methionine or homocystine because the beneficial effects of glycine and serine supplements were observed only after the animals had been eating the diets for several days.

Manuscript received 20 February 1967.

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