Abstract
It is now an established and unequivocal fact that cholesterol is readily absorbed from the gastro-intestinal tract and that an increase may be demonstrated in the thoracic duct chyle after feeding. Relatively little is known, however, about the factors influencing this absorption. Thus, when a rise in the blood cholesterol of rabbits was prevented for several months by feeding potassium iodide with the cholesterol, 1 it was considered possible that the iodide in some way prevented the absorption of the sterol, but no information bearing on this point was available.
It seemed possible to approach the problem by feeding cholesterol to normal and iodized animals and determining the level of the cholesterol in the chyle. Unfortunately the small size of the thoracic duct in rabbits made it infeasible to use them for this purpose although it would have been desirable to carry out the work on the same species of animal used in the previous experiments. Dogs seemed to offer the least technical difficulty and accordingly were used with the realization that, while results obtained in omnivores could not be applied directly to herbivorous animals such as rabbits, nevertheless it might be possible to answer the question as to whether the iodide influenced the absorption of the sterol.
The dogs chosen for experimental subjects were long-necked hounds about one year old, weighing 9 to 13 kg. Pentobarbital sodium (Nembutal, Abbott) on the average of 40 mg. per kg. body weight given intraperitoneally induced deep anesthesia for about one hour. This was usually sufficient for the operative procedure. After obliterating all visible lymphatics on the right side of the neck which might possibly transport chyle, as suggested by Drinker and Field, 2 a thoracic duct fistula was made on the left side.
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