Abstract
The amount and composition of fecal neutral sterols and bile acids excreted by adult male germfree and conventional rats have been determined. The amounts of neutral sterols excreted were 12.8 (germfree) and 19.5 (conventional) mg/kg of body wt per day. The germfree rats excreted cholesterol and lathosterol (methostenol was not assayed); the conventional rats excreted coprostanol and coprostanone in addition. The amounts of bile acids excreted were 11.3 (germfree) and 21.4 (conventional) mg/kg of body wt per day. The bile acids excreted by the rats were tentatively identified as tauro--muricholate, tauro-alpha-muricholate, and tauro-cholate, besides an unidentified component. The conventional rats excreted the corresponding unconjugated acids as well as many other unconjugated bile acids. No significant correlation was found between the amount of coprosterols and the total amount of neutral sterols excreted by the conventional rats. This suggests that bacterial reduction of cholesterol is not an important mechanism of increasing neutral sterol excretion of conventional rats as compared to germfree rats. Evidence is presented that suggests that this difference in neutral sterol excretion is due to changes in intestinal secretion and sloughing between the two types of animal. The factors reponsible for the differences in bile acid excretion have not been identified.
Highlights
The amount and composition of fecal neutral sterols and bile acids excreted by adult male germfree and conventional rats have been determined
XEINTESTINAL a n d fecal neutral sterols of germfree rats have been shown by Gustafsson, Gustafsson, and Sjovall [1] to be qualitatively different from those of conventional rats
Names of steroids used in this paper are: cholesterol, cholest-5en-38-01; coprostanol, 5P-cholestan-3~-ol; coprostanone, 5Pcholestan-3-one; lathosterol, 5a-cholest-7-en-3&ol (A7-cholestenol); methostenol, 4a-mcthyl-5a-cholest-7-en-3~-ol“;7-ene sterols,” a mixture of sterols containing double honds at the 7 position, which are characterized by their rapid development of color with Liebermann-Burchard reagent; lithocholic acid, 3ahydroxy-5@-cholanoic acid; chenodeoxycholic acid, 3a,7a-dihydroxy-5j3-cholanoic acid; cholic acid, 3au,7a,l2a-trihydroxy5P-cholanoic acid; deoxycholic acid, 3a,lZa-dihydroxy-5@cholanoic acid; a-muricholic acid, 3a,6&7a-trihydroxy-5& cholanoic acid; fl-muricholic acid, 3a,b@,7P-trihydroxy-58cholanoic acid
Summary
The amount and composition of fecal neutral sterols and bile acids excreted by adult male germfree and conventional rats have been determined. The endogenous fecal neutral sterol excreted by the germfree and conventional rats averaged 12.8 and 19.5 mg/kg of body wt per day, respectively (Table 1 ; P < 0.001).
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