EFFECT OF NEONATAL DIETARY-CHOLESTEROL DEPRIVATION IN PIGS WITH GENETICALLY HIGH OR LOW PLASMA-CHOLESTEROL ON PLASMA-LIPIDS AND EARLY ATHEROGENESIS

Sixty-eight neonatal female pigs from populations selected for high (H G) or low (LG) plasma total cholesterol were used in two experiments t o test the hypothesis that dietary cholesterol deprivation during the first 4 or 8 weeks of postnatal life increases plasma total cholestero l and exacerbates early aortic atherogenic lesions following free acce ss to a high fat (15 g/100g)-high cholesterol (0.5 g/100g) diet from 4 or 8 weeks to 5 or 6 mo of age. Pigs were removed from their dam at o ne d of age and given free access to a modified sow-milk replacer diet containing 0 or 0.5% crystalline cholesterol. In each experiment, hal f of the HG and LG pigs were fed a sow-milk replacer diet containing 0 cholesterol and half were fed the same diet containing 0.5% added cho lesterol. All pigs (except HG and Lg pigs in experiment 2 deprived of cholesterol throughout) were fed a 15% fat-0.5% cholesterol diet from 57 d to 6 mo (experiment 1) or 5 mo (experiment 2) of age. Overall tot al cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol were greater i n HG than in LG pigs (P<0.01) and less in pigs fed no cholesterol than in those fed cholesterol neonatally (P<0.05) in both experiments. Nev ertheless, dietary cholesterol deprivation neonatally in either HG or LG pigs did not affect the incidence or severity of aortic myogenic fi ber degeneration, considered to be an early stage of atherogenic lesio n development in these experimental swine. It is concluded that early aortic atherogenic lesions induced in young adult female HG and LG pig s by a high dietary cholesterol challenge during the postweaning perio d are not exacerbated by dietary cholesterol deprivation in neonatal l ife. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.