Figure 1. Fractional cholesterol absorption in wild-type and NPC⁻ mutant mice.

Fractional absorption of orally gavaged [4-¹⁴C]cholesterol was measured using the fecal dual-isotope technique in wild-type (WT), NPC1⁻ (NPC1) and NPC2⁻ (NPC2) mice, either untreated or treated orally with 10 mg of ezetimibe/kg of body weight (+EZ). The absorption was measured at two different cholesterol levels in the dosing mixture: 0.01 mg cholesterol (white bars); 0.11 mg of cholesterol (hatched bars). Results are means±S.E.M. for each genotype set, which typically included three or four animals. ANOVA did not reveal any significant genotype-specific effect on fractional cholesterol absorption (P>0.2), whereas ezetimibe treatment elicited a strong decrease (P<0.0001 for all genotypes).