Effect of dietary cholesterol and plant sterol consumption on plasma lipid responsiveness and cholesterol trafficking in healthy individuals

Abstract

The objective was to determine the degree of correspondence in plasma cholesterol concentration changes caused by dietary cholesterol (DC) versus plant sterols (PS) and their effects on cholesterol trafficking. A randomized, cross‐over, placebo controlled free‐living clinical trial (n=51) with 3 treatment phases of 4 week duration each separated by a 4 week washout was conducted. During each phase, participants consumed one of the three treatments containing 0.6 g DC, 2 g PS/day or a placebo after breakfast meal. Plasma lipid profile was determined and cholesterol absorption (CA) was measured by using a stable isotope [3, 4‐13C]‐labeled cholesterol administered orally. Cholesterol synthesis (CS) was assessed using plasma lathosterol as a surrogate marker. DC intake increased total cholesterol (TC) compared to placebo (0.16 mmol/L; P = 0.037) and PS (0.25 mmol/L; P = 0.005). PS intake reduced (0.20 mmol/L; P = 0.042) LDL‐C only compared to DC. Cholesterol absorption was inhibited (P = 0.0001) by PS consumption compared to placebo. Results showed that the degree of cholesterol lowering with PS intake was not in concordance with the cholesterol elevating offset caused by DC intake with respect to TC and LDL‐C. The offsets in CA and CS caused by DC and PS did not align with those of LDL‐C and TC. The large inter‐individual variability in the plasma lipid responsiveness to PS and DC intake in the population could be ascribed to the above results.

Extraction of Brazil nut kernel oil using green solvents: Effects of the process variables in the oil yield and composition

“…β‐Sitosterol is well recognized for its therapeutic efficacy as a cholesterol‐lowering agent (total plasma cholesterol and low‐density lipoprotein) (Alphonse, Ramprasath, & Jones, ; Desai, Dong, & Miller, ) and exhibits anticancerous (Sharmila & Sindhu, ) and anti‐inflammatory activities and protection against cardiovascular diseases (Desai et al, ; Shahzada et al, ), thus being an attractive source for the development of a variety of food enriched with this sterol. In the analysis of the β‐sitosterol content as a function of each of the two independent process variables studied, similar behaviors of β‐sitosterol amount was observed for the temperature and static time (Figure a,b).…”

“…The β-sitosterol content was quantified in the oils obtained by PLE using IPA as solvent under the process conditions of the CCRD-2 and the results are shown in Table 3. The statistical analysis employed to evaluate the effect of process variables (St and T) on the content of β-sitosterol present in oils (assays 1-7; β-Sitosterol is well recognized for its therapeutic efficacy as a cholesterol-lowering agent (total plasma cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein) (Alphonse, Ramprasath, & Jones, 2017;Desai, Dong, & Miller, 2016) and exhibits anticancerous (Sharmila & Sindhu, 2017) and antiinflammatory activities and protection against cardiovascular diseases (Desai et al, 2016;Shahzada et al, 2017), thus being an attractive source for the development of a variety of food enriched with this sterol. In the analysis of the β-sitosterol content as a function of each of the two independent process variables studied, similar behaviors of β-sitosterol amount was observed for the temperature and static time (Figure 3a,b).…”

Is Plant Sterols a Good Strategy to Lower Cholesterol?

“…For instance, a newly published study reported that a daily intake of 3 g PS esters failed to attenuate neither serum TC nor LCL-C levels in 16 subjects 28 . Similarly, the randomized crossover trial found that 2 g/day PS supplementation failed to modulate LDL-C levels in 49 subjects despite a reduction on cholesterol absorption was observed 29 . However, Alphonse and his colleagues identified huge inter-individual variations of the study subjects in response to PS in a manner that almost half of the subjects responded adversely, whereas other half responded positively 29 .…”

“…Similarly, the randomized crossover trial found that 2 g/day PS supplementation failed to modulate LDL-C levels in 49 subjects despite a reduction on cholesterol absorption was observed 29 . However, Alphonse and his colleagues identified huge inter-individual variations of the study subjects in response to PS in a manner that almost half of the subjects responded adversely, whereas other half responded positively 29 . The inter-individual variation was thought due to poor compliance of participants to dietary treatment or poor quality control of the study; however, individual s endogenous lipid metabolism seems also contributes to this.…”

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: The Earlier the Better? A Review of Plant Sterol Metabolism and Implications of Childhood Supplementation

“…The LDL-cholesterol-lowering effect of plant sterols or stanols (the 5α-saturated derivatives of plant sterols) have been repeatedly confirmed by more than 200 studies (Table 1 summarizes some of the studies). The efficacy of the LDL-C-lowering effect, however, is affected by the subject's baseline cholesterol concentration, the food matrix, frequency and time of intake, and dosage [12,64,65]. According to these data, a 2 g/day threshold dose of plant sterols/stanols is generally required for a clinically relevant LDL-C reduction.…”