Influence of Dietary Fats and Cholesterol on Tissue Lipids in Chickens

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Abstract
The effects in New Hampshire cockerels of dietary fats and cholesterol on serum and liver cholesterol concentrations, liver lipid concentration, the degree of saturation of tissue fats, and endogenous cholesterol synthesis were measured after 10-, 16- and 22-week feeding periods. Serum cholesterol concentrations were increased only when both fat and cholesterol were fed. The increase was not inhibited by unsaturated dietary fat. Cholesterol, when fed with corn oil, vegetable shortening, or butterfat, caused greatly increased liver cholesterol and (subsequently) increased liver lipid concentration; the increases were greatest with dietary corn oil and least with butterfat. The iodine number of the abdominal fat reflected that of the dietary fat when the diet contained 15% of fat but not when only 3% of fat was fed. Iodine numbers of liver lipids were independent of dietary fat saturation. Endogenous cholesterol synthesis decreased with age and appeared to be independent of the degree of saturation of dietary fat; it was strongly inhibited by diets containing both fat and cholesterol. No atherosclerotic changes were observed.