Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 7, 210-214, March 1966
Copyright © 1966 by Lipid Research, Inc.

Abnormalities of lipid metabolism in the vitamin E-deficient monkey

Manford D. Morris , Coy D. Fitch , and Evelyn Cross

Departments of Biochemistry, Pediatrics, and Medicine, University of Arkansas School of Medicine, Little Rock, Arkansas

A soybean protein diet was used to induce vitamin E deficiency in rhesus monkeys. The deficient monkeys had reduced triglyceride concentrations in liver and skeletal muscle, but the cholesterol concentration in their skeletal muscle was increased. A constant amount of radioactively labeled ³H-cholesterol-7-³H was fed daily for 48-114 days to control and vitamin E-deficient monkeys to study the relationship between plasma, liver, and skeletal muscle cholesterol. Plasma cholesterol reached constant, maximum specific activity by the 42nd day both in control and in vitamin E-deficient monkeys. In control and previously deficient vitamin E-treated monkeys the specific activity of cholesterol in liver and skeletal muscle was approximately equal to that of plasma. In vitamin E-deficient monkeys the liver cholesterol specific activity was equal to that of plasma cholesterol, but the ratio of skeletal muscle cholesterol specific activity to plasma cholesterol specific activity was reduced. It is concluded from these studies that there is a specific defect(s) in cholesterol metabolism in the skeletal muscle of vitamin E-deficient monkeys.

Supplementary key words primate • rhesus monkey • vitamin E deficiency • cholesterol • lipids • plasma • muscle • liver • metabolism • soybean protein • choline • methionine • cystine

Submitted on September 8, 1965
Accepted on November 11, 1965

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