Effects of methionine supplementation on the incidence of dietary fat induced myocardial lesions in the rat.

Purified diets were prepared to evaluate the effect of methionine supplementation on the incidence and severity of vegetable oil-induced myocardial lesions in the rat. The unsupplemented basal diet fed was similar in nutrient composition to typical semipurified diets currently utilized for cardiopathogenic evaluation of dietary rapeseed oils and contained 1.276 mg of S-amino acid per kilocalorie. The methionine-supplemented diet contained an additional 0.25% (w/w) L-methionine or a total of 1.815 mg of S-amino acid per kilocalorie. Feeding trials were conducted in which weanling rats were fed either a diet containing 20% (w/w) soybean oil (SBO), low erucic acid rapeseed oil (LER) or high urucic acid rapeseed oil (HER) for 16 or 28 weeks. Dietary supplementation with methionine was found to reduce the incidence of focal myocardial lesions in SBO-fed animals to zero. These results suggest that marginal deficiencies in methionine may interact with the frequency and severity of myocardial changes reported for Sprague-Dawley rats fed various dietary oils. The results indicate that levels of essential nutrients should be adjusted when the energy level of the diet is increased.