Fatty Livers Induced by Orotic Acid

Rats fed a purified diet supplemented with erotic acid (1%) have gross alterations in their lipid metabolism that can be essentially nullified by further supplementation of the diet with adenine sulfate (0.25%), as described in the first paper of this series (1). Accompanying these changes are certain alterations in the metabolism of pyrimidine derivatives, which have been described in an earlier report (2). Other reports of alterations in the pools of pyrimidine nucleotides in animals fed erotic acid have appeared in preliminary form (3). Hurlbert and Potter (4) have studied the fate of tracer doses of orotate-6-C14 with emphasis on its role as a precursor of the pyrimidine-containing components of nucleic acids. The present report’ presents an analysis of the fate of dietary erotic acid and the levels of purine and pyrimidine nucleotides in the livers of rats fed various supplemented diets, as well as studies of the formation of nucleotides and the catabolism of orotate in liver slices and cell-free extracts.