Suppression of hypercholesterolemia in hepatoma-bearing rats by cabbage extract and its component, S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide.

The effect of cabbage extract on cholesterol metabolism was studied in Donryu rats subcutaneously implanted with an ascites hepatoma cell line (AH109A). The hepatoma-bearing rats exhibited hypercholesterolemia induced by increasing cholesterogenesis in the host liver and decreasing steroid excretion into feces. The cabbage extract intake or administration reduced serum cholesterol level and enhanced fecal bile acid excretion and cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase activity, the rate-limiting enzyme of bile acid biosynthesis, in the microsomal fraction of the liver. Furthermore, S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide, a component of cabbage, could mimic the effect of cabbage extract when orally administered. These results suggest that cabbage suppresses hypercholesterolemia responding to hepatoma growth by upregulating cholesterol catabolism and that S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide in cabbage is one of the factors suppressing hypercholesterolemia in the hepatoma-bearing rats.