Table 2. Blood lipid distribution in female and male rats subjected 30 days to a cafeteria diet.

All values are the mean ± sem of 6 different animals per group. Statistical analysis was done using a 2-way ANOVA.

	Units	Male rats		Female rats		P values
		Control	Cafeteria	Control	Cafeteria	Sex	Diet
Plasma triacylglycerols	mM	1.28 ± 0.07	1.40 ± 0.11	1.35 ± 0.08	1.48 ± 0.07	NS	NS
Plasma total cholesterol	mM	1.76 ± 0.11	2.15 ± 0.17	2.25 ± 0.21	2.56 ± 0.13	0.0404	0.0106
Plasma free fatty acids	mM	0.35 ± 0.04	0.43 ± 0.03	0.75 ± 0.04	0.68 ± 0.08	<0.0001	NS
Blood cell extracted lipid	mg/ga	12.0 ± 3.5	11.5 ± 2.1	12.8 ± 3.2	10.1 ± 2.8	NS	NS
FA extracted from RBC	µmol/ga	21.9 ± 0.4	20.8 ± 6.6	23.2 ± 1.9	18.2 ± 2.6	NS	NS
FA in trapped plasma	µmol/ga	0.37 ± 0.04	0.88 ± 0.29	0.68 ± 0.08	0.82 ± 0.30	NS	NS
	%b	1.7 ± 0.2	3.6 ± 1.6	3.0 ± 0.4	5.5 ± 1.8	NS	NS
Packed RBC volume	%	41.3 ± 0.6	44.1 ± 1.6	40.9 ± 0.9	42.1 ± 0.6	NS	NS

Notes.

FA

fatty acids

^aData per gram of fresh packed cells.

^bPercentage (in weight) of fatty acids in trapped plasma with respect to total fatty acids recovered from cells.