The Unmasking of Cytoplasmic Lipids in Rat Livers as a Consequence of Dietary Changes

The livers from rats fed either on a normal diet containing 20% of protein or on a diet which facilitated liver carcinogenesis and which contained only 5% of protein supplemented with methionine appeared histologically normal. Histochemical investigation of such livers showed that in the livers of animals fed on the protein-deficient diet there was a large increase in lipid staining. Biochemical investigation of these livers demonstrated that this increase in lipid staining was not due to a significant increase in total lipids nor to a significant decrease in total protein. These findings are discussed in terms of the ‘unmasking’ of the structural cytoplasmic lipids of the liver cells as the consequence of the feeding of an apparently protein-deficient diet.