Effects of calcium and plant sterols on serum lipids in obese Zucker rats on a low-fat diet

Ca may interfere with fat and cholesterol metabolism through formation of insoluble soaps with fatty and bile acids in the intestine. In the present study, we examined the effects of different dietary Ca levels on the serum lipid profile and cholesterol metabolism in obese Zucker rats fed a low-fat diet. We also tested whether dietary Ca interfered with the lipid-lowering effects of a pine oil-derived plant sterol mixture. Increase in dietary Ca intake from 0·2 to 0·8 %, and further to 2·1 % (w/w) dose-dependently decreased serum total cholesterol (r -0·565, P=0·002, n 27), LDL-cholesterol (r -0·538, P=0·006, n 25), and triacylglycerol (r -0·484, P=0·014, n 25) concentrations, and increased HDL-cholesterol (r 0·478, P=0·016, n 25) and HDL : LDL cholesterol (r 0·672, P