Saturated fat diet induces transintestinal cholesterol excretion in mice

Intake and absorption of cholesterol (the latter determined by double labeled cholesterol methodology) were nearly unchanged in mice fed the saturated fat diet, but the fecal excretion of neutral sterols (i.e. cholesterol and its microbial conversion products) was increased compared with control diet(+80%; p<0.01). The saturated fat diet did neither significantly affect biliary cholesterol secretion nor intestinal cholesterol absorption (49% vs. 65% in controls, double labeled water methodology, p>0.1). Thus, the increased fecal neutral sterol excretion was primarily due to increased net transintestinal cholesterol excretion (+89% versus control; p<0.05). Since a major fraction of TICE cholesterol absorption is normally reabsorbed (J Lipid Res 2019 Sep;60(9):1562-1572), the increased fecal cholesterol excretion could be due to more transintestinal excretion of cholesterol into the intestinal lumen and/or to its decreased reabsorption. The saturated fat diet increased jejunal expression of genes involved in cholesterol synthesis (Srebf2 and target genes), but did not affect whole body de novo cholesterol synthesis. Conclusion This proof-of-principle study shows that increasing the saturation of the dietary fat can stimulate fecal cholesterol excretion. Individual components of saturated fat diets are to be explored to address the responsible molecular mechanisms Total RNA optained for intestine ( 12 samples) , where compaired in the 2 different groups , consisting out of 6 biological replicates