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Departments of 3 Nutritional Sciences and 4 Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: maria-luz.fernandez{at}uconn.edu.
We previously demonstrated that a diet therapy involving consumption of 7.28 g psyllium (PSY) and 2 g of plant sterols (PS) per day reduced LDL cholesterol from 3.6 ± 0.7 to 3.1 ± 0.8 mmol/L (P < 0.01) and decreased the number of intermediate density lipoprotein particles and the smaller LDL and HDL subfractions in hypercholesterolemic individuals (n = 33). The study design was a randomized double blind crossover. Subjects consumed either 2 test cookies containing PSY+PS or 2 placebo cookies for 1 mo with a 3-wk wash out between treatments. To explore mechanisms of the lipid-lowering effects of combined PSY+PS, we present data related to intravascular and molecular regulation. Intake of PSY+PS decreased the cholesterol concentration in LDL-1 from 2.46 ± 0.66 to 2.26 ± 0.46 mmol/L and in LDL-2 from 0.63 ± 0.24 to 0.54 ± 0.27 mmol/L (P < 0.05) in the test compared with the placebo period. An increase in LDL peak size from 27.3 ± 0.8 to 27.5 ± 0.6 nm (P < 0.05) and a decrease in the prevalence of LDL pattern B from 27 to 18% (P < 0.05) also occurred during the PSY+PS period. Cholesteryl ester transfer protein activity was 11% lower (P < 0.05) during the test period. Notably, the abundance of the LDL receptor in circulating mononuclear cells as measured by real time PCR was 26% higher during the test compared with the placebo period (P < 0.03). These results indicate that the hypocholesterolemic action of PSY and PS can be explained in part by modifications in the intravascular processing of lipoproteins and by increases in LDL receptor-mediated uptake.
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