The Effect of Dietary β-Sitosterol and, 3-Sitostanol on the Metabolism of Cholesterol in Rats

Effects of dietary β-sitosterol (s) and β-sitostanol (hs) on the metabolism and fate of labeled cholesterol intravenously injected were compared in rats fed diets high in cholesterol. Kinetic behavior of the decay curve for serum cholesterol in the hs supplemented (c+hs) group approximated to that in the cholesterol-free (control) group. The largest dilution of the label was observed in rats of the cholesterol (c) group and the least in the c + hs group, the c+s group being intermediate. The specific activity of hepatic cholesterol was in the decreasing order of the c+hs, c+s and c groups, while the situation was reversed when expressed in terms of net incorporation. Thus, cholesterol pool seemed to be much smaller in the c+ hs group than in the c + s group. In a long term feeding experiment with diets free of cholesterol, hs exhibited significantly greater hypocholesterolemic activity than s did. These data, together with those reported previously, indicated that inhibitory effect on the absorption of both endogenous and exogenous cholesterol was much more greater in hs than in s.