It has long been known that plasma cholesterol consists largely of a mixture of several different fatty acid esters of cholesterol. This was first indicated in 1896, when Hiirthle isolated cholesteryl palmitate, oleate, and stearate from an alcoholic extract of serum (1). Subsequent early studies on the ratio of free to ester cholesterol in plasma demonstrated that most of the plasma cholesterol normally exists in ester form (2). More recent studies, using gas-liquid chromatography for the analysis of the cholesterol ester fatty acids, have defined the composition of the plasma cholesterol esters in a variety of species (3-8).In addition, plasma cholesterol normally is distributed among several different plasma lipoprotein fractions. Most of the plasma cholesterol of man is typically present in the low density, beta-lipoprotein fraction, with smaller amounts present in the high density and the very low density lipoproteins (9-12). These lipoproteins show small but consistent differences in their ratio of free to ester cholesterol (11,13). Recent analyses of the cholesterol ester composition of each human plasma lipoprotein have demonstrated strong similarities in the cholesterol ester composition of the different lipoproteins (13). Small but statistically significant differences do, however, exist between the different lipoproteins. Larger differences between lipoprotein cholesterol ester patterns have been reported by Lindgren and Nichols (14).Previous studies on the turnover of cholesterol in human plasma have treated plasma cholesterol ester as a single homogeneous entity (15-17). Since plasma cholesterol ester exists as a mixture * Submitted for publication April 2, 1964; accepted July 2, 1964. Supported by research grants AM-05986 and HE-05741 from the National Institutes of Health.
MethodsForty-four microcuries of DL-2-C'4-mevalonic acid, in solution in isotonic saline, was injected intravenously into each of two fasting normal men. The C'4-mevalonic acid 1 was prepared for injection as described earlier (18). The subjects, a 39-year-old Negro (subject WB) and an 18-year-old Caucasian (subject EH), ate their usual diets except for a slight reduction in fat intake for one week preceding, and during, the period of the study. Serial blood samples were collected in syringes moistened with a solution of heparin, and plasma samples were collected and processed as described in detail elsewhere (13). In brief, small samples of plasma were extracted immediately, and larger volumes of plasma were used for the serial separation of lipoproteins as discussed by Havel, Eder, and Bragdon (10