Studies of Cholesterol Catabolism to Bile Acids in Germfree Animals

STUDIES OF CHOLESTEROL CATABOLISM TO BILE ACIDS IN GERMFREE ANIMALS 

When cholesterol labeled in the 26-position was injected into an intact rat, most of the released by the animal was found as expired i C02 (9). However, when the identical experiment was performed using i C-4 labeled cholesterol, none of the isotope was recovered as i C02. Subsequent experiments (10) established the liver as the site of the side-chain oxidation. In vitro experiments with subcellular fractions (11,12) revealed that during the 

The recovered in the feces was nearly twice as great in the conventional group as in the germfree, thus indicating that conventional rats ex- 

TABLE I. Percentage Distribution of after Intravenous Administration of Cholesterol-26- C to Germfree and Conventional Male Rats  

From Wostmann et al. (13). Reprinted with permission of the authors and the Journal of Lipid Research. 

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