Effect of plant sterols, fatty acids and lecithin on cholesterol absorption in vivo in the rat

Abstract The inhibitory effect of plant sterols, fatty acids and lecithin on cholesterol intestnal absorption was studied in the unanesthetized rat using a single pass perfusion technique. Bile was excluded from the perfused intestine. Cholesterol absorption did not change following the additions of cholestanol, cholestanone, lanosterol, stigmasterol and β‐sitosterol. A 3‐fold increase in the molarity of cholestanol and β‐sitosterol or the separate additions of the saturated short and medium chain fatty acids, butyric and octanoic, also did not change cholesterol absorption. The unsaturated long chain fatty acids, oleic, linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic, inhibited cholesterol absorption. Lecithin additions at concentrations of 0.1–1.5 mM caused a progressive, dose‐related inhibition of cholesterol absorption. The inhibitory effect of these agents on cholesterol absorption is likely to have been caused by changes in cholesterol solubility in the micelle and shifts in the partition coefficient of cholesterol away from the cell membrane to the micelle.