Table 1. Effect of dietary SM on liver and fecal lipids, and on intestinal cholesterol absorption in high-fat fed mice.

	HF	HFSM 0.6%	Difference
	(n = 10)	(n = 9)
Liver
Total lipid (mg/organ)	105.3±12.8	66.8±8.9*	−37%
Cholesterol (µmol/organ)	31.4±2.9	14.1±1.7***	−55%
Triglyceride (µmol/organ)	99.3±15.9	50.7±9.4*	−49%
[14C]cholesterol (dpm/organ)	7531±1314	1725±255**	−77%
[3H] sitostanol (dpm/organ)	341±35	285±30	−17%
Feces
Total lipid (mg/mouse/day)	10.4±1.3	15.4±2.3	+48%
Cholesterol (µmol/mouse/day)	9.2±0.7	12.7±0.7**	+37%
Triglyceride (µmol/mouse/day)	2.6±1.0	3.3±1.0	+27%
[14C]cholesterol (dpm/mouse/day)	9659±601	12604±1004*	+30%
[3H] sitostanol (dpm/mouse/day)	19593±1571	20018±2069	+2%
Cholesterol absorption (%)	52.4±2.6	36.8±3.9**	−30%

Male C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-fat diet without (HF) or with 0.6% wt/wt SM (HFSM 0.6%) for 18 days. The mice were gavaged with olive oil containing radioactively labelled cholesterol and sitostanol on day 14 and sacrificed on day 18. Feces were collected on days 14–18. The livers were excised at sacrifice. Fecal and hepatic lipids were quantified as described in “Methods”. Results represent means±SEM. Significant differences between HF and HFSM groups were determined by Student's t-test:

^* P<0.05,

^** P<0.01,

^*** P<0.001.