Abstract
Summary
A study has been made of the variation with age of the response of rats to low casein, cholesterol supplemented diets deficient in cystine and/or choline. Young rats succumb much more readily than do older rats to the effects of dietary deficiencies in cystine or choline. While choline deficiency almost invariably results in hepatic fibrosis in young rats, in older rats it frequently causes nothing but fatty livers even after 8 months. The incidence of hepatic necrosis due to cystine deficiency in young rats was about the same as that observed in older rats but the young rats developed such lesions in 1/3 the time required in older rats. Many rats of all ages have been observed to die of cystine deficiency with no detectable histological abnormalities in any of 19 organs examined. Young rats, fed a diet deficient in both choline and cystine live somewhat longer than simply cystine deficient anihials but show no hepatic damage. Older rats on such rations develop livers which are necrotic, fibrotic, and fatty despite a loss of as much as two-thirds of their initial body weight during the experimental period.
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