Dietary animal proteins and cholesterol metabolism in rabbits

The effect in rabbits of giving isonitrogenous purified diets containing casein, ovalbumin, fish protein, milk-whey protein and soya-bean protein were compared. The diets were balanced for cholesterol and for the amount and type of fat. When incorporated into low-cholesterol diets (0.8 g cholesterol/kg), casein, ovalbumin and soya-bean protein produced similar levels of serum cholesterol. With a high background of dietary cholesterol (1.5 g/kg), serum cholesterol concentrations increased with soya-bean protein, whey protein, casein and fish protein, in that order. Thus, the hypercholesterolaemic effect of casein in carefully balanced diets was only seen against a high-cholesterol background. The development of hypercholesterolaemia produced by giving fish protein was different from that produced by casein. First, less cholesterol accumulated in the very-low-density-lipoprotein fractions and more in the lipoproteins of higher density with fish protein than with casein. Second, fish protein, unlike casein, did not increase liver cholesterol. Third, transfer of rabbits from a diet containing soya-bean protein to one containing casein resulted in an immediate marked depression in neutral steroid and bile acid excretion in faeces. However, when rabbits were fed on the diet with fish protein after the diet with soya-bean protein, there was no significant depression in neutral steroid output and the depression in bile acid output was delayed. The present study suggests that different animal proteins cause hypercholesterolaemia by different mechanisms.