In 1850, Theodore Gobley, working in Paris, described a substance, 'lecithine', which he named after the Greek 'lekithos' for egg yolk. Adolph Strecker noted in 1862 that when lecithin from bile was heated, it generated a new nitrogenous chemical that he named 'choline'. Three years later, Oscar Liebreich identified a new substance, 'neurine', in the brain. After a period of confusion, neurine ...

Rats maintained for a period of 7 months on a fluid intake of 15 per cent alcohol and a diet marginal in lipotropic activity developed fatty infiltration and mild fibrosis of the liver. Similar changes were observed in pair-fed controls given an isocaloric equivalent of sucrose instead of alcohol, but not in pair-fed controls receiving neither alcohol nor sucrose supplements. To exclude the pos...

The lipotropic action of choline and of related compounds has been extensively investigated since this effect was demonstrated in rats (2, 3). These studies on the relation of choline to the protein, fat, carbohydrate, and cholesterol metabolism of the rat have recently been reviewed by Best and Ridout (4). In this series of papers, evidence is presented for a hitherto unrecognized effect of ch...

100pM-choline and incubated with lOOp~-[Me-~'C]choline only one energy of activation was observed (40.0kJ/mol) over the whole range of temperatures studied (6-40°C; Table 1). Similarly in nerve-cell cultures it was observed that, after incubation with concentrations of choline analogous to the ones present in the growth medium (30m~) , only one energy of activation was found (Massarelli et al.,...

The efflux of Ca2+ from both cardiac and skeletal-muscle mitochondria loaded with 25 nmol of Caz+/mg of protein into a salt-free medium is shown in the form of an Arrhenius plot in Fig. 1. Basal efflux of Caz+ from cardiac and muscle mitochondria increases as the temperature is raised from 17 to 41OC; the respective activation energies are 53 and 87kJ/mol. Between 17 and 34OC Na+-stimulated eff...

Choline. Choline has been identified as a required nutrient for many species including humans, chicks, and pigs. Choline is found in low concentrations in most feeds, ranging from 0.04% in corn silage and alfalfa hay to 0.3% in protein sources such as soybean meal and cottonseed meal (DM basis). Its low concentrations in feeds are indicative of the low amounts required by livestock (e.g. 3 g/da...

Choline is essential in diets fed to most young vertebrates, but previous studies did not confirm the essentiality of choline in diets fed to tilapia. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the essentiality of dietary choline in such diets. The basal diet used in both experiments contained 32 g crude protein/100 g diet (10.1 g crude protein from casein and gelatin, and 21.9 g from a crystal...

The construction and performance of an amperometric microbiosensor for the determination of choline chloride by immobilizing choline oxidase on a cellulose acetate membrane are described. The procedure of choline determination involved the electrochemical detection of enzymatically generated hydrogen peroxide. This microsensor has a linear response between 0.038-0.1 mM choline chloride. The...

DNA methylation influences the expression of some genes and depends upon the availability of methyl groups from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Dietary methyl groups derive from foods that contain methionine, one-carbon units and choline (or the choline metabolite betaine). Humans ingest approximately 50 mmol of methyl groups per day; 60% of them are derived from choline. Transmethylation metabolic...