The cholesterol content of the hair of the albino rat.

Abstract

The data reported herein represent a preliminary study of the lipoids in the hair of the albino rat.

The hair of young normal rats was found to contain 4.5 per cent total lipoids. The total cholesterol content of these lipoids, determined by the digitonin method, was found to be 11.9 per cent, and of this amount 80 per cent consisted of free cholesterol and 20 per cent of combined cholesterol. The amount of lecithin present was calculated from the phosphorus content of the lipoids and amounted to 0.8 per cent of the total lipoids. In a previous communication 1 attention was called to the fact that the lipoids of the human skin contained as much as 20 per cent of total cholesterol. Work is now in progress which will determine the nature of the lipoids in the hair of rachitic rats.