Histological Differentiation of Fatty Livers Produced by Threonine or Choline Deficiency

Abstract

Histological studies have been made on the livers of rats fed various low-casein diets in an attempt to correlate alterations in fat deposition with structural changes in the liver tissues. The fatty infiltration and occasional necrosis observed in the livers of rats fed a 9% casein-sucrose diet containing choline were not apparent when diets containing additional protein, threonine, or threonine and glycine were fed. The livers of rats fed diets in which the sucrose was replaced by either glucose or dextrin also appeared structurally normal. The fatty infiltration in the livers of rats fed the basal diet was less severe than that observed when choline was omitted from the diet. The occasional necrosis and the network-like distribution of fatty cells also make it possible to differentiate this condition from the diffuse fatty infiltration that occurs in choline-deficient rats.