Figure 1.

Effect of dietary cholesterol on cholesterol absorption in WT and apoE knockout mice. WT (E+/+) and apoE knockout (E−/−) C57BL/6 males were fed for 3 wk with either dietary 0.02% (open bars) or 0.5% wt/wt cholesterol (filled bars). Mice received a gastric bolus of 100 μl of olive oil containing 1.67 μCi [¹⁴C]cholesterol and 0.67 μCi [³H]β-sitostanol and were placed in metabolic cages, and feces were collected for 24 h. The ratio of [¹⁴C]/[³H] labels in the fecal lipid extracts was determined and % absorption was calculated as detailed in Experimental Procedures. Data presented are the mean ± SD of five animals in each group. *, P < 0.001 vs. E+/+ 0.02% group; **, P < 0.008 vs. E+/+ 0.5% group.