Effects of plant sterols on cholesterol concentration in the rat small intestine

Summary The effects of feeding single doses of -sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol on cholesterol concentration in the rat small intestine was studied to clarify their roles in cholesterol absorption. The different plant sterols affected free and ester cholesterol concentrations differently in the different intestinal segments suggesting that they have different effects on such intestinal processes as uptake, esterification and possibly synthesis of cholesterol and transport of cholesterol esters out of the mucosal cells into the lymphatics.Acknowledgments. Financed by the Emergy Goff Research Award from the American Heart Association-Louisiana, Inc. and the NHLBI research grant HL-08974 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.