Abstract
Summary
Because previous reports have demonstrated that intestinal bacterial suppression retards the development of cirrhosis in rats on choline deficient diets, the sensitivity of these animals to the lethal and sublethal effects of E. coli lipopolysaccharide was studied. Rats with fatty livers of choline deficiency had a marked reduction in the LD 50 to endotoxin. In addition, serum transaminase levels of these animals were raised by doses of the endotoxin that were too small to affect the enzyme levels in controls. It is suggested that rats on a choline-deficient cirrhotogenic diet, experience tissue necrosis from amounts of endotoxin that are ordinarily rendered harmless.
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