The effects of administering cholesterol and cholesta-3:5-dien-7-one to cockerels

Abstract

Cockerels maintained from the 8th to the 16th week of age on diets containing cholesterol (2 g/bird/day) or cholesta-3:5-dien-7-one (0.33 g/bird/day) were compared with control birds on the unsupplemented diet. Blood cholesterol remained between 105 and 152 mg/100 ml whole blood for controls and [image]dienone[image]-fed birds, but reached 526-860 mg/100 ml for those given cholesterol. The cholesta-3:5-dien-7-one was poorly absorbed and there was no significant change, compared with controls, in liver unsaponifiable matter, liver cholesterol or liver vitamin A. The intestines were much heavier than those of controls, and contained a larger amount of total unsaponifiable matter and of cholesterol. Cholesterol-fed birds had enlarged fatty livers with a more than tenfold rise in unsaponifiable matter (nearly all due to cholesterol) compared with controls. Nearly 40% of the liver vitamin A store was lost. The liver and intestine unsaponifiable matter contained respectively 16-18 mg and 6-7 mg of cholesta-3:5-dien-7-one. This material is regarded as a metabolite and not a laboratory artifact. The presence of a substance showing lambda maximum 272 mji (in light petroleum) in the livers of all 3 groups of cockerels provides additional evidence that the material is a normal constituent. It is accompanied by a substance of similar chromatographic properties which gives rise to an absorption band near 315 m[mu] in concentrated H2SO4.