Abstract
Summary and discussion
Chemical changes in the cytoplasm of the mouse liver cell after a short fast and at cirrhosis are reported. These changes occur most dramatically in the lipide fraction during a 24 hour fast resulting in an increase of 3 to 4 fold above normal. This lipide is non-phospholipide in character. Fasted cirrhotic liver differs from the fasted normal liver cytoplasm in that the lipide does not increase so markedly and the phospholipide decreases to about 60% of the normal fasted value. The iodine values of the normal-fasted and the cirrhotic-fasted liver cytoplasm fatty acids decrease below that of the normal values.
In addition to a lipide increase in the fasted-cirrhotic liver cytoplasm there is also a decrease of “ribonucleic acid” and phospholipide in one gram wet weight of the ground fasted cirrhotic liver.
It is possible that there is an interchange of phospholipide during a fast as evidenced by the lipide nitrogen to phosphorus ratio. This interchange would consist of substituting normal phospholipide with a lipide or phospholipide which contains a great deal of nitrogen.
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