Plasma and liver cholesterol concentrations in mice fed semipurified diets differing in the amount of cholesterol and type of fat.

Male and female mice of two inbred strains were fed semipurified diets with or without added cholesterol (1%, w/w) containing 18% by weight of either coconut fat or corn oil. After 28 days coconut fat had produced higher concentrations of plasma cholesterol than corn oil in almost all groups, irrespective of whether the diets contained cholesterol or were cholesterol-free. On the cholesterol-free diets, the type of fat did not influence the concentration of liver cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol caused a marked increase in liver cholesterol, the magnitude of the effect being dependent on the strain of mice and being greater in females than males. In all groups fed cholesterol corn oil caused significantly higher concentrations of liver cholesterol than coconut fat.