Successful Prevention of Experimental Hypercholesteremia and Cholesterol Atherosclerosis in the Rabbit

Cholesterol is absorbed by rabbits while its stereoisomer, sitosterol, is not resorbed. Cholesterol and sitosterol form nonseparable crystals. When the two sterols were fed simultaneously to rabbits, cholesterol was not absorbed, or was absorbed but partly. The degree of prevention of hypercholesteremia depended upon the amount of sitosterol fed with the cholesterol. A six-fold surplus of plant sterol was required in the experiments because the product employed contained but 75 to 80 per cent of sitosterol and because the supplied sitosterol binds not only exogenous cholesterol but also endogenous cholesterol present in the intestines. In the rabbit, prevention of hypercholesteremia is tantamount to prevention of atherosclerosis induced by cholesterol feeding.