The effects of corn oil on the amounts of cholesterol and the excretion of sterol in the rat

Abstract

Supple-mentation of a low-fat diet with 2 or 10% of corn oil led to an increase in the cholesterol concentrations of the tissues and organs of rats, particularly the hearts, aortas, livers, intestines and muscle. The increases in the cholesterol of the tissues and organs were accompanied by a large decrease in the concentration of serum lipids and a considerable decrease in the concentration of serum cholesterol, these effects being relatively greater in young animals. The decrease in serum cholesterol which accompanied an increase in the overall cholesterol concentrations of the tissues indicates that the serum cholesterol is not a suitable measure of the changes in cholesterol concentration in the animal as a whole. However, some indication of changes in the body cholesterol of rats can be gained by measuring the rate of sterol excretion. There appears to be a definite relationship between body cholesterol and total body lipids in mature rats, the ratio being lower in rats fed on a low-fat diet than those receiving a corn-oil supplement. The fatty acid composition of the tissue and serum lipids reveals an inverse relationship between the concentrations of cholesterol in the tissues and that of arachidonic acid in the lipids, the reason for which is not understood.