TABLE 3.

Plasma lipids, liver lipid composition, and biliary excretion of sterols in response to probucol treatment

	AdNull		AdhApoE3
	Control	Probucol	Control	Probucol
Plasma
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	72.3 ± 1.7	35.3 ± 1.3a	63.7 ± 2.8	21.9 ± 1.3a
Free cholesterol (mg/dl)	22.2 ± 0.4	10.7 ± 0.6a	29.8 ± 2.0	8.5 ± 1.1a
Esterified cholesterol (mg/dl)	50.1 ± 1.8	24.6 ± 1.1a	34.0 ± 2.0	13.4 ± 0.6a
Phospholipids (mg/dl)	154.1 ± 7.4	97.7 ± 5.8a	137.8 ± 9.5	59.8 ± 1.3a
Triglycerides (mg/dl)	58.2 ± 7.1	36.0 ± 3.5a	95.3 ± 7.9	32.4 ± 7.0a
Liver
Total cholesterol (nmol/mg liver)	7.2 ± 0.2	7.5 ± 0.2	9.1 ± 0.4	9.2 ± 0.5
Free cholesterol (nmol/mg liver)	5.9 ± 0.1	6.0 ± 0.2	7.4 ± 0.5	6.9 ± 0.3
Esterified cholesterol (nmol/mg liver)	1.3 ± 0.1	1.5 ± 0.1	1.7 ± 0.2	2.3 ± 0.2
Phospholipids (nmol/mg liver)	29.2 ± 0.7	26.5 ± 0.6a	26.7 ± 0.6	27.8 ± 0.6
Triglycerides (nmol/mg liver)	21.4 ± 1.7	22.3 ± 3.3	63.7 ± 7.1	59.4 ± 8.6
Bile
Bile flow (μl/min/100 g bw)	9.3 ± 0.6	8.2 ± 0.7	7.3 ± 1.1	10.6 ± 0.9
Biliary bile acid secretion (nmol/min/100 g bw)	469 ± 90	357 ± 73	427 ± 81	466 ± 51
Biliary phospholipid secretion (nmol/min/100 g bw)	41.6 ± 3.1	37.7 ± 5.6	43.0 ± 5.4	64.3 ± 5.1a
Biliary cholesterol secretion (nmol/min/100 g bw)	3.5 ± 0.4	3.6 ± 0.5	2.9 ± 0.4	5.2 ± 0.7a

Mice were fed a control chow diet or a chow diet containing 0.5% probucol for 2 weeks. On day 4 after adenovirus injection, bile was collected continuously for 30 min, plasma samples were taken, and livers were harvested and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Plasma lipids, liver lipids, and biliary output rates of bile acids, phospholipids, and cholesterol were determined as described in Materials and Methods. Values are means ± SEM; n = 6 mice for each condition. AdhApoE3, recombinant adenovirus expressing human apoE3; AdNull, empty control adenovirus; bw, body weight.

^aSignificantly different from the respective controls as assessed by Mann-Whitney U-test (at least P < 0.05).