Effect of oral antimicrobial agents on absorption of cholesterol

¹ Department of Clinical Science, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Rats were fed a sterol, fat free synthetic diet plus 9% corn oil, the sterol content being known. One group received streptomycin and Sulfasuxidine in the diet at a level of 0.2% and 1%, respectively; another, 200 mg and 500 mg daily of Terramycin and Sulfathalidine (TS), respectively. Cholesterol-4-C¹⁴ was added to the diet, and the fecal C¹⁴ in the unsaponifiable (UM) and the digitonin-precipitable material (DM) and the "bile acid fraction" was determined. The antimicrobial agents had no significant effect on the output of C¹⁴ in the UM. In the TS, the output of C¹⁴ in the UM and DM was the same, showing that a marked reduction in intestinal flora prevents the change of digitonin-precipitable into nondigitonin-precipitable material. The C¹⁴ output in the UM or DM was used as a basis for calculation, and 68 and 76%, respectively, of the dietary cholesterol was absorbed. In the TS group, using either the UM or the DM, the absorption was 70%. The differences represented by the three percentages are not statistically significant.