AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 239, Issue 5 358-G362, Copyright © 1980 by American Physiological Society
Effect of small intestinal bypass on hepatic lipid accumulation in rats
D. L. Kaminski, E. J. Mueller and M. Jellinek
Bypass of large segments of the small intestine to produce weight loss in
morbidly obese human subjects has been associated with increased lipid
accumulation in the liver. Congenital and nutritional obese rat models were
employed to evaluate hepatic lipid accumulation following bypass of 90% of
the small intestine. When small intestinal bypass was performed on
nutritionally obese rats ingesting a high-fat diet (17%) supplemented with
choline dihydrogen citrate (3,4 g/kg diet), a 59% loss of weight at 1 mo
was unassociated with increased hepatic lipid accumulation when compared to
sham-operated controls. When small intestinal bypass was performed on a
nutritionally obese rat fed a relative choline-methionine-deficient diet
following intestinal bypass, marked increases in total hepatic lipid and
hepatic triglyceride content were evident when compared to the lipid
content in sham-operated controls ingesting a similar choline-deficient
diet. Hepatic steatosis following small intestinal bypass could be produced
in a rat model only by a deficiency in a required substrate for
triglyceride conversion to phospholipid and suggests that similar
deficiencies may contribute to the increased hepatic lipid accumulation
occurring in human subjects following intestinal bypass.
