Figure 2. Partial model of body and intestinal endogenous cholesterol metabolism.
Solid arrows depict cholesterol pathways with statistically significant negative correlations to carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) while dotted lines show pathways with significant positive correlations to CIMT. Dietary cholesterol was controlled at a low level during measurements and is not included in the model. Cholesterol pathways that tend to reduce the rapidly-mixing body cholesterol pool are associated with reduced CIMT. Primary data are found in Table 3. Endogenous cholesterol input into the rapidly-mixing pool is estimated as the percent fall in plasma enrichment between days 2 and 15.