Effect of Different Dietary Fats on the Fæcal End-Products of Cholesterol Metabolism

Abstract

INVESTIGATORS in several laboratories, including our own¹, have shown that certain unsaturated fats are able to lower the serum cholesterol-level of human subjects. It is possible that this effect is achieved by an increase in the excretion of the end-products of cholesterol metabolism; hence we have commenced a study of the quantitative changes in these end-products during the administration of different dietary fats. Following the demonstration that ingested cholesterol 4-¹⁴C is excreted mainly as cholic acid both in rats² and in a human bile fistula patient³, particular attention was paid to the bile-acid content of the fæces (estimated by the method of Lewis⁴). In addition, the Liebermann–Burchard reacting neutral sterols of the fæces were measured by the method of Abell et al. ⁵ and total fæcal lipid according to van de Kamer et al. ⁶. The serum cholesterol was also measured by the method of Abell et al. ⁵.