The effect of fasting on the cholesterol metabolism

Summary The author studied the effect of starvation upon the cholesterol content in the liver and blood, as well as on cholesterol synthesis in the liver. 1-C¹⁴ sodium acetate was injected intraperitoneally into rabbits (50 C per kg of body weight). The animals were bled to death 4 hours after C¹⁴ administration. Cholesterol-C¹⁴ was isolated in the form of the digitonide. Starvation was connected with a considerable increase of cholesterol concentration in the blood and liver and with an acute reduction of the rate of cholesterol synthesis in the liver. The correlation between specific activities of the liver and blood serum cholesterol is about the same in normal and starving animals. The reduced chloresterol excretion and breakdown possibly causes a rise of its level in starving animals.(Presented by Active Member AMN SSSR S. E. Severin) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 87–89, August, 1960