Effects of Levels of Certain Dietary Lipids on Plasma Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis in the Chick

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Abstract
Chicks fed a synthetic diet containing 20% of hydrogenated coconut oil (HCO) and 1% of cholesterol developed atherosclerotic lesions in 20 weeks. Cholesterol levels in the blood plasma and cholesterol esters in the aortic lipids were high in comparison with those of birds which received no dietary cholesterol. With a low-fat diet (0.5% HCO) plasma cholesterol was not elevated by cholesterol feeding. Vitamin A (167 IU/gm of diet) inhibited sharply the vascular degeneration and the increase in plasma cholesterol and aortic ester cholesterol in chicks fed the high-fat diet. Vitamin E (0.25 mg of dl-α-tocopherol/gm of diet) showed no such effect. Bile salt (0.3%) in the diet nullified the effect of vitamin A. Substitution of soybean oil for half of the HCO inhibited the increase in plasma cholesterol and inhibited vascular changes and ester cholesterol accumulation similar to vitamin A.