Effect of dietary fat on metabolism of cholesterol-26-C¹⁴ in the rat

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee

Rats were maintained for varying periods of time on a purified diet containing 20% fat as hydrogenated cottonseed oil, corn oil or coconut oil and then injected intravenously with a tracer dose of cholesterol-26-C¹⁴ in solution. No significant influence was observed by the type of fat ingested on the amount of C¹⁴ converted to C¹⁴O₂, excreted in feces, or retained in the nonsaponifiable fraction of several selected tissues. From 9 to 17% of the administered dose of C¹⁴ was expired as C¹⁴O₂ and from 3 to 8% was excreted in feces in 72 hours. The greatest amount of C¹⁴ retained in the body was found in the liver (11–22%), and in this organ the largest values were observed in those animals which had been on the diet the shortest length of time.