Conjoint Effects of Dietary Vegetable Fats and Cholesterol in Rabbits

Abstract

Rabbits were given a commercial diet with added fats such that the total fat contained 20, 39, 60 and 80% of saturated acids (as glycerides) and the linoleic acid content was approximately 12%. The level of fat in the diet was 10%. The 20% saturated fat produced the highest weight gain. There were no significant differences in serum cholesterol but the concentration of liver cholesterol varied inversely with the saturation of the fat, as determined by a ferric chloride method. Addition of 0.5% of cholesterol to the above diets gave the expected high levels of serum cholesterol and formation of aortic plaques, but the degree of saturation of the dietary fat did not alter the magnitude of these effects significantly, within the limits studied. The cholesterol-fat diets increased the weights of liver, spleen and adrenals and the concentration of total lipids and cholesterol in the liver, and produced a normocytic anemia and a hyperplasia of the epithelium of the gastric mucosa.