Table 3. Fecal Animal Sterol Contents (mg/g Freeze-Dried Feces) after Regular Consumption of the Beverages (n = 42) (Median, Percentile 25–75%)a.
| conversion
percentages |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sterol | pre-treatment | post-treatment (6 weeks) | p value | absolute change | p value | low converters | high converters |
| PS-Enriched Beverage | |||||||
| cholesterol | 2.19 (1.48; 2.76) a | 3.94 (1.99; 5.58) b | 2 × 10–4 | 1.43 (0.04; 3.09) y | 30.3–36.0 (2) | 51.3–93.8 (40) | |
| coprostanol | 13.38 (9.62; 18.71) a | 10.68 (6.74; 15.89) b | 8 × 10–4 | –3.16 (−5.35; −0.47) y | |||
| coprostanone | 0.93 (0.40; 2.28) a | 1.67 (0.96; 3.11) b | 2 × 10–3 | 0.54 (−0.27; 1.22) y | |||
| cholestanol + methylcoprostanolb | 1.15 (0.93; 1.42) a | 1.77 (1.23; 2.76) b | 3 × 10–6 | 0.62 (0.16; 1.41) y | |||
| lathosterol | 0.09 (0.07; 0.12) a | 0.09 (0.07; 0.13) a | 0.40 | 0.01 (−0.01; 0.02) y | |||
| total animal sterols | 19.28 (13.49; 26.24) a | 20.05 (13.29; 27.10) a | 0.65 | –0.01 (−3.33; 5.40) y | |||
| GOS–PS-Enriched Beverage | |||||||
| cholesterol | 1.90 (1.49; 3.03) a | 3.99 (2.33; 6.05) b | 7 × 10–6 | 1.35 (0.43; 3.79) y | 0.38 | 2.1–44.1 (3) | 51.0–94.3 (39) |
| coprostanol | 14.45 (10.96; 18.64) a | 12.07 (7.06; 15.26) b | 4 × 10–3 | –2.05 (−7.51; 0.70) y | 0.96 | ||
| coprostanone | 0.87 (0.47; 2.14) a | 2.34 (1.15; 3.13) b | 7 × 10–4 | 0.76 (−0.17; 2.24) y | 0.45 | ||
| cholestanol + methylcoprostanolb | 1.02 (0.90; 1.35) a | 1.84 (1.33; 2.37) b | 7 × 10–7 | 0.78 (0.21; 1.29) y | 0.48 | ||
| lathosterol | 0.09 (0.07; 0.12) a | 0.09 (0.07; 0.15) a | 0.11 | 0.01 (−0.02; 0.03) y | 0.50 | ||
| total animal sterols | 19.58 (16.30; 25.90) a | 22.49 (17.66; 27.91) a | 0.65 | 1.59 (−3.21; 5.84) y | 0.67 | ||
Absolute change: post-treatment level minus pre-treatment level. Different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05) in the same kind of beverage (PS-enriched or GOS–PS-enriched) among pre-treatment and post-treatment values (within lines) (a,b), or in different beverages among absolute changes (within columns) (y,z). Cholesterol conversion percentage: [coprostanol + coprostanone/(cholesterol + coprostanol + coprostanone)] × 100. Low and high converters were defined according to Wilkins & Hackman (1974)36 considering that low converters have a sterol conversion rate of <50% and high converters of >50%. The number of subjects corresponding to each group is indicated in parentheses.
The applied method does not allow the separation of these compounds.