Simultaneous assessment of cholesterol absorption and synthesis in humans using on-line gas chromatography/combustion and gas chromatography/pyrolysis/isotope-ratio mass spectrometry

A number of dietary components and drugs are known to inhibit the absorption of dietary and biliary cholesterol, but at the same time can compensate by increasing cholesterol synthesis. It is, therefore, necessary to have a convenient and accurate method to assess both parameters simultaneously. Hence, we validated such a method in humans using on-line gas chromatography(GC)/combustion and GC/pyrolysis/isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Cholesterol absorption was measured using the ratio of [C-13]cholesterol (injected intravenously) to [O-18]cholesterol (administered orally). Simultaneously, cholesterol synthesis was measured using the deuterium incorporation method. Our methodology was applied to 12 mildly hypercholesterolemic men that were given a diet providing 2685 +/- 178 Kcal/day (mean +/- SD) and 255 +/- 8 mg cholesterol per day. Cholesterol fractional synthesis rates ranged from 5.0 to 10.5% pool/day and averaged 7.36% +/- 1.78% pool/day (668 +/- 133 mg/day). Cholesterol absorption ranged from 36.5-79.9% with an average value of 50.8 +/- 15.4%. These values are in agreement with already known data obtained with mildly hypercholesterolemic Caucasian males placed on a diet similar to the one used for this study. However, our combined IRMS method has the advantage over existing methods that it enables simultaneous measurement of cholesterol absorption and synthesis in humans, and is therefore an important research tool for studying the impact of dietary treatments on cholesterol parameters. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.