Comparison of the effects on lipid metabolism of dietary methionine and cystine between hepatoma-bearing and normal rats

The effects of dietary supplementation with methionine and cystine on lipid metabolism, including the serum lipid concentration, were studied in Donryu rats subcutaneously implanted with an ascites hepatoma cell line (AH109A) for comparison with normal rats. A diet supplemented with 1.2% L-methionine or L-cystine to 20% casein was found to suppress the hepatoma-induced increases in serum triglyceride and total cholesterol concentration. The lipoprotein lipase activity in tissues was enhanced by dietary methionine and cystine, with no change in the mRNA level. Dietary methionine and cystine increased bile acid excretion into the feces with enhanced hepatic cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase activity. Dietary methionine and cystine affected the lipid metabolism differently in normal rats from hepatoma-bearing rats. These results suggest that dietary methionine and cystine each had a hypolipidemic effect against cancer-induced hyperlipidemia, and that the different actions observed in the hepatoma-bearing and normal rats may have been due to a metabolic abnormality caused by the cancer.