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Effects of Dietary Deficiencies of Lipotropic Factors on Plasma Cholesterol Esterification and Tissue Cholesterol in Rats¹

Department of Biochemistry, Creighton University, School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska

The effects were studied of dietary deficiencies of pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, inositol and choline on the cholesterol-esterifying activity in plasma and on the distribution of cholesterol in the tissues of rats. The rate of cholesterol esterification in plasma was similarly altered by the dietary deficiencies in both male and female rats. It was increased by diets deficient in pantothenic acid or choline, decreased by a diet deficient in inositol and unaffected by a dietary deficiency of pyridoxine. Accompanying the increased esterification rate in the plasma of male rats were specifically increased concentrations of cholesterol esters in liver, kidneys, heart and skeletal muscle of animals subjected to a dietary deficiency of pantothenic acid and in livers of animals subjected to dietary choline deficiency. This specific increase in the concentrations of cholesterol esters in the tissues was not produced by the other dietary deficiencies and did not occur at all in the female rats. The plasma cholesterol concentrations were normal or slightly decreased and the rates of cholesterol esterification in some of the tissues concerned, as measured in vitro, were not increased. The evidence therefore suggests that the cholesterol esters formed in the plasma probably contributed to the increased concentrations of cholesterol esters in the tissues. A possible lack of cholesterol substrate in the plasma of the female rats may explain the sex difference observed.

² Lederle Corporation student fellow, summer, 1966.

Manuscript received 9 October 1967.