BACKGROUND In 1998 choline Adequate Intakes of 425 and 450 mg/d were established for nonpregnant and pregnant women, respectively. However, to our knowledge, no dose-response studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of pregnancy or maternal choline intake on biomarkers of choline metabolism. OBJECTIVE We sought to quantify the effects of pregnancy and maternal choline intake on mat...

The CKI1-encoded choline kinase (ATP:choline phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.32) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was phosphorylated in vivo on multiple serine residues. Activation of protein kinase A activity in vivo resulted in a transient increase in the phosphorylation of choline kinase. This phosphorylation was accompanied by a stimulation in choline kinase activity. In vitro, protein kinase A p...

Recent developments in nutrition have established that choline is an essential nutrient for mammals when a sufficient supply in methionine and folates are not available in the diet. Vitamin B12 is also involved in this process. The dynamic interactions between these components introduced the concept of choline as vitamin-like compound. Two types of choline functions are known: as choline per se...

When type II pneumonocytes from adult rats were maintained in a medium that lacked choline, the incorporation of ['4C]glycerol into phosphatidylcholine was not greatly diminished during the period that the cells displayed characteristics of type II pneumonocytes. Cells that were maintained in choline-free medium that contained choline oxidase and catalase, however, became depleted of choline an...

Choline is required to make essential membrane phospholipids. It is a precursor for the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and also is an important source of labile methyl groups. Mammals fed a choline-deficient diet develop liver dysfunction; however, choline is not considered an essential nutrient in humans. Healthy male volunteers were hospitalized and fed a semisynthetic die...

BACKGROUND The neonatal methionine requirement must consider not only the high demand for rapid tissue protein expansion but also the demands as the precursor for a suite of critical transmethylation reactions. However, methionine metabolism is inherently complex because upon transferring its methyl group during transmethylation, methionine can be reformed by the dietary methyl donors choline (...

Choline is an essential nutrient, and the amount needed in the diet is modulated by several factors. Given geographical differences in dietary choline intake and disparate frequencies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in choline metabolism genes between ethnic groups, we tested the hypothesis that 3 SNPs that increase dependence on dietary choline would be under negative selection press...

Choline has critical roles during periods of rapid growth and development, such as infancy. In human milk, choline is mostly present in water-soluble forms (free choline, phosphocholine, and glycerophosphocholine). It is thought that milk choline concentration is influenced by maternal choline intake, and the richest food sources for choline are of animal origin. Scarce information exists on mi...

The conversion of W-labeled fatty acylsphingosine and phosphatidyl[14C]choline to sphingomyelin could be demonstrated in lyophilized microsomes from mouse liver. Radioactive CDP-choline did not act as a choline donor. No cofactors were needed, although CDP-choline and P-choline exerted some stimulatory action. The unnatural ceramide, acetyl threo-sphingosine, could be converted to the correspon...