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Breakdown of choline-containing phospholipids in rat brain during severe weight loss
Christoph Göpel1, Martin H Schmidt, Marianne Campanini
1Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mannheim, Germany.
Abstract:
Recent investigations in human anorectic patients indicated changes of brain choline metabolism. We used starved rats to investigate possible changes of brain choline metabolites during severe weight loss. Reductions of body weight by 15, 30 and 45% resulted in significant decreases of cerebral phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin levels. Concomitantly, the brain tissue content of glycerophosphocholine was increased while phosphocholine and free choline were unchanged. We conclude that severe weight loss is accompanied by phospholipase activation and breakdown of choline-containing phospholipids in the brain.