KANNAPOLIS – The Director of the UNC Nutrition Research Institute at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis has been awarded a four-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to develop and validate a panel of laboratory tests that can assess choline status in humans.

Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD won the award for his research from the NIH Institute.

                                                                                                    Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD

Choline is an important and essential nutrient for human health, playing a key role in brain development, and liver and muscle function. But there are no good validated biomarkers for assessing choline nutritional status that can be practically applied in clinical or public health practice.

Choline rich foods include eggs, milk, yogurt, beef liver, poultry, salmon, and cruciferous vegetables and some beans.

A recent national diet survey by the US Centers of Disease Control reported that 90 percent of adults in the US do not achieve the recommended intake for choline. It is important to liver function, nerve function, muscle movement, energy levels and maintaining a healthy metabolism. Signs of a deficiency include low energy levels, memory loss, muscle aches, nerve damage among others.

Zeisel said in a statement, “We need a better lab test that health professionals can use to assess a person’s choline status given the narrow range for healthy intake of choline, the three-fold variation in dietary intake in the US, and the effects of common genetic variants on requirements for choline.

“With the recent establishment by the Food and Drug Administration of a Reference Daily Intake (RDI) of choline, awareness of this critical nutrient is growing and health professionals will need diagnostic tools to help consumers make good choices for health.” Unfortunately, plasma choline concentrations alone are not a good measure of choline status.

To successfully compete for this large award from the National Institutes of Health, Zeisel had to demonstrate that the studies were feasible and were likely to succeed; he generated this proof-of-concept data in a pilot study that was funded by Balchem Corporation, a company that produces choline for food uses.  

Zeisel expects the outcome of this research to improve public health worldwide. “Once medical professionals can identify which people have low choline stores, they can make sure that these people get enough of this essential nutrient,” he said. People who are low in choline can have excessive muscle loss when they exercise, and can develop liver problems. Women depend on adequate choline stores during pregnancy and lactation because they must deliver large amounts of this nutrient to the growing fetus and infant to assure normal brain development.”