Characteristics of the four treatment groups at the end of the study.

Groups are abbreviated as: control mice fed a cholesterol-free Western type diet (CON); mice fed the same Western type diet but supplemented with high dose (1% w/w) cholesterol (HC); mice with alternate CON (4 days) and HC (3 days) diet regimen (ALT); mice fed Western type diet supplemented with a medium dose (0.43% w/w) cholesterol (MC). Data are expressed as means ± SEM. Values in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different. P<0.05