Effects of polyunsaturated fats on lipid metabolism in patients with hypertriglyceridemia.

Studies were carried out on the effects of polyunsaturated fats on lipid metabolism in 11 patients with hypertriglyceridemia. During cholesterol balance studies performed in eight patients, the feeding of polyunsaturated fats, as compared with saturated fats, caused an increased excretion of endogenous neutral steroids, acidic steroids, or both in most patients. Increases in steroid excretions were marked in some patients and generally exceeded the decrement of cholesterol in the plasma compartment. The finding of a greater excretion of fecal steroids on polyunsaturated fats in hypertriglyceridemic patients contrasts to the lack of change in sterol balance previously reported for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia; however, other workers have found that polyunsaturated fats also enhance steroid excretion in normal subjects. In most of the patients, simultaneous studies were carried out on biliary lipid composition, hourly outputs of biliary lipids, and pool sizes of bile acids. In several but not all patients, fasting gallbladder bile became more lithogenic after institution of polyunsaturated fats. This increased lithogenicity was not due to a decrease in bile acid pools; in no case was the pool decreased by polyunsaturated fats. On the other hand, two patients showed an increased output of biliary cholesterol, and frequently there was an increase in fecal neutral steroids that were derived from cholesterol; thus, polyunsaturated fats may increase bile lithogenicity in some patients through mobilization of cholesterol into bile. Reductions in plasma cholesterol during the feeding of polyunsaturated fats was seen in most patients, and these changes were usually associated with a decrease in concentration of plasma triglycerides. In fact, the degree of cholesterol lowering was closely correlated with the extent of triglyceride reduction. Therefore, in hypertriglyceridimec patients polyunsaturated fats may contribute to cholesterol reduction by changing the metabolism of triglycerides or very low density lipoproteins. The findings of changes in the metabolism of cholesterol, bile acids, and triglycerides in the patients of this study suggests that polyunsaturated fats may cause a lowering of cholesterol through multiple mechanisms, and it seems unlikely that a single action can explain all the effects of these fats on the plasma lipids.