Effect of Dietary Fat on the Disposition of Cholesterol-4-C 14 in Rats. ∗

Abstract

Summary

Rats were maintained for 30 to 76 days on a purified diet containing 20% fat as hydrogenated cottonseed oil, corn oil, or coconut oil and then injected intravenously with a tracer dose of cholesterol-4-C¹⁴. In the 6 days following injection higher excretion of C¹⁴ was observed in animals maintained on hydrogenated cottonseed oil. Of the activity extracted by petroleum ether after saponification, a lower percentage was present in the digitonin-precipitable fraction in animals fed coconut oil. Smaller amounts of cholesterol were excreted by the coconut oil-fed rats. No consistent differences were observed in total C¹⁴ activity of various organs of the different dietary groups at any time period. Neither serum cholesterol nor serum C¹⁴ activity was affected by variation of the type of dietary fat given these rats.