Cereal Chem 53:540 - 548.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Effect of Some Wheat Mill-Fractions on Blood and Liver Lipids in Cholesterol-Fed Rats.

G. S. Ranhotra, R. J. Loewe, and L. V. Puyat. Copyright 1976 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Young male rats fed an atherogenic diet containing cholesterol showed, at 2 weeks , a sharp increase in their serum cholesterol levels which gradually declined over the next 6 weeks. When sucrose in the diet (50%) was substituted, in entirety, with three wheat fractions (flour, germ, and bran), elevation in serum cholesterol levels was significantly less pronounced throughout, in germ- and bran- fed rats, and, to a lesser extent, in those fed patent flour. This occurred in bran-fed rats in spite of higher intake of cholesterol. Effect on serum triglyceride levels was inconsistent; still, some lowering of levels was observed in flour- and germ-fed rats. In rats fed a cholesterol-free diet, substitution of sucrose with wheat fractions did not lower serum cholesterol levels, and some reduction in triglyceride levels occurred only in flour-fed rats. Livers of cholesterol-fed rats showed marked infiltration of cholesterol and increase in weights; these changes, however, were much less pronounced in germ- and bran-fed rats. Liver triglycerides were little affected. In cholesterol-fed rats, substituting sucrose with bran lowered chylomicron and beta-lipoprotein fractions, and some reduction in beta- ad pre-beta-fractions was also observed in rats fed patent and whole wheat flours.