Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine associate professor of medicine Alan L Buchman MD is conducting a study of patients receiving total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in order to confirm an earlier study showing that supplementing the B vitamin choline prevents the development of fatty liver. Fatty liver, which often occurs with alcoholism and obesity, can lead to cirrhosis or liver failure. Previous research conducted on choline by Dr Buchman led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of nutritional label content claims for choline last year. In the current FDA-funded study, U.S. and U.K. patients receiving TPN who have had part of their intestines removed will be given choline or a placebo in their intravenous solutions and monitored for liver damage. TPN solutions have not contained choline because of the belief that humans manufacture their own choline and that breaks it down very slowly. Dr Buchman explained, "They do metabolize it very slowly, but it doesn’t mean they don’t metabolize it. Without a source, regardless of how slowly choline is metabolized, eventually the body’s supply will be depleted... When we gave choline intravenously, we were able to get the blood levels of choline to normal and all the fat in the liver went away."

Although choline exists in a variety of foods, its principle sources, organ meats and fatty foods, may be shunned by many individuals. Oral choline supplements can create a fishy body odor in some individuals, however the intravenous route of administration eliminates that problem.

Dr Buchman commented on choline's additional benefits, "Although we’ve known about choline for a while, we’re just now discovering its importance to verbal and visual memory, nerve conduction, and communication between the cells of the body."