Em. Kurowska et Kk. Carroll, HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIC RESPONSES IN RABBITS TO SELECTED GROUPS OF DIETARY ESSENTIAL AMINO-ACIDS, The Journal of nutrition, 124(3), 1994, pp. 364-370
In rabbits, elevation of LDL cholesterol is produced by feeding a chol
esterol-free, semipurified diet containing 30% casein amino acid mixtu
re, but not by feeding the same diet containing 14.7% of the casein am
ino acid mixture, corresponding to a normal level of dietary protein.
The hypercholesterolemic response was greater when all essential amino
acids except arginine or all ketogenic essential amino acids (lysine,
leucine, isoleucine, threonine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and glycine
) were selectively fed at three times the normal level. In the present
experiments, the same high levels of lysine, leucine and methionine p
roduced a substantial hypercholesterolemia, addition of either isoleuc
ine + threonine or isoleucine + valine did not enhance the effect, and
a mixture of threonine, histidine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and glyc
ine gave only a moderate response. A combination of lysine and methion
ine produced a greater effect than either lysine and leucine or leucin
e and methionine. Hypercholesterolemic diets containing high levels of
lysine and leucine did not cause significantly greater plasma ketone
bodies or free fatty acids. Differences in growth rates and ketogenic
responses were not generally correlated with hypercholesterolemia.