Table 1.

Characteristics of studies included in the systematic review.

First Author (year)	Study Design	Population	Intervention	n	Age (years)	Male (%)	Marker	Study Duration (Hours)	Dietary Information
									Type of Meals	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Other
Kopito (1982) [28]	Experimental, crossover	Healthy subjects	One meal/day No meal	1	40	100	MVA	72	Day 1 and 2: standardised dinner Day 3: no meal			19:00
Miettinen (1982) [29]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects		7	Range: 16–49	N/A	Squalene + methyl sterols	24	Three meals and evening snacks. Fat intake provided approximately 35% of total calories	08:00	12:00	16:00	20:00
Parker (1982) [30]	Experimental, crossover	Subject with hyper-cholesterolemia and ischemic heart disease		1	55	100	MVA	72	Four daily liquid-formula meals in equal portions; caloric intakes adjusted to maintain BW within ± 1.5 kg over 3–5-weeks	08:00	13:00	19:00	10:00
		Subject with hypertri-glyceridemia, obesity, and maturity-onset diabetes	No treatment 12-day fast	1	66	100	MVA	48	No treatment: liquid formula diet in five equal portions per day for three weeks 12-day fast: no dietary intake	08:00	13:00	19:00	10:00/17:00
		Subject with heterozygous familial hyper-cholesterolemia and ischemic heart disease	Moderate cholesterol intake High cholesterol intake	1	45	100	MVA	48	Moderate intake: five liquid formula feedings, 550 mg cholesterol/ day, for three weeks High intake: five liquid formula feedings, 1200 mg cholesterol/day, for three weeks	08:00	13:00	19:00	10:00/17:00
Parker (1984) [31]	Experimental, crossover	Subject with hypertri-glyceridemia	No treatment Moderate cholesterol intake High cholesterol intake	1	68	100	MVA	72	No treatment: eating ad libitum 3 times/day as outpatient Moderate intake: five liquid formula feedings, 207 mg cholesterol/day, for four weeks High intake: five liquid formula feedings, 972 mg cholesterol/ day, for four weeks	08:00	13:00	19:00	10:00/17:00
Miettinen (1985) [32]	Longitudinal	Subjects with jejunoileal bypass		4	26 ± 8	N/A	Squalene + methyl sterols	24	Low-cholesterol diet, 125 mg cholesterol/ 2400 kcal, 100 g fat/day	08:00	12:00	16:00	20:00
		Subjects with ileal exclusion		4	38 ± 12	N/A
Scoppola (1991) [33]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects		1	N/A	N/A	MVA	24	Low fat (<5%), cholesterol-free meals	09:30	12:30	19:00
Jones (1992) [34]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects		5	26 ± 4	100	MVA	48	Three self-selected, habitual meals/day for three days prior to and 48 h during the study	08:00 –09:00	12:00 –13:00	18:00 –19:00
Pappu (1994) [35]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects		6	30 ± 2	50	MVA	24	Three meals/day (40% fat, 25% CHO, 15% protein)	08:00	12:00	18:00
		Patients with abetalipoproteinemia		3	24 ± 10	66.6			Three meals/ day (12–15% fat, 70–75% CHO, 13–17% protein)	08:00	12:00	18:00
Yoshida (1994) [36]	Longitudinal	Patients with cholelithiasis and patients with early cancer of the GI-tract		3	Range: 24 – 28	N/A	C4	24	Normal hospital diets	08:00	12:30	17:30
Nozaki (1996) [37]	Experimental, crossover	Subjects with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia	No treatment Morning pravastatin Evening pravastatin	8	58 ± 9	37.5	MVA	24	Cholesterol intake ± 300 mg/day; 20% fat intake; ratio polyunsaturated to saturated FAs was 1.5; single dose pravastatin (20 mg) taken after breakfast or after dinner	08:00	12:00	18:00
Pappu (2002) [38]	Experimental, crossover	Subjects with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia	No treatment Lovastatin Simvastatin	9 5	41 ± 4 N/A	0	MVA	24	Low-cholesterol, low-fat diet conforming to phase I of the American Heart Association Diet; statins (40 mg) given after breakfast and dinner for eight weeks	08:00	12:00	18:00
Martin (2002) [39]	Experimental, crossover	Healthy subjects	Morning rovustatin Evening rovustatin	21	N/A	N/A	MVA	24	Individual caloric and fat intake was stabilized; Rosuvastatin (10 mg) taken each morning (~07:00 h) or evening (~18:00 h) for 14 days	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gälman (2005) [40]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects (n = 5) and cholecystecto-mized subjects (n = 3)		8	Range: 25–58	50	C4, latho-sterol	24	Standardised meals	09:00	12:00	18:00
Persson (2010) [41]	Experimental	Healthy subjects	CME treatment	10	N/A	75	Latho-sterol	33	Standardised meals; CME was taken with meals day 1 (4 × 4 g)	08:30	12:30	16:00	21:30
Steiner (2011) [42]	Longitudinal	Healthy subjects		4	Range: 27–29	50	C4	24	Subjects consumed identical meals	09:15 (day 1) 08:45 (day 2)	11:30	20:15
Al-Khaifi (2018) [43]	Experimental, crossover	Healthy subjects	No treatment CME CME + atorvastatin	8	Range: 20–45	100	C4, latho-sterol	32	Standardised meals; CME (4 × 4 g) taken before meals day 1; atorvastatin (four daily doses of 40 mg) dose 1 and 2 taken on the morning two days before CME treatment, dose 3 and 4 on the morning of the first and second study day	08:30	13:00	18:00	20:30

Abbreviations: BW = body weight; C4 = 7α-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one; CHO = carbohydrates; CME = cholestyramine; FA = fatty acids; GI = gastrointestinal; MVA = mevalonate; N/A = data not available.