Alleviation Syndrome of High-Cholesterol-Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia in Mice by Intervention with WLPL21 via Regulation of Cholesterol Metabolism and Transportation as Well as Gut Microbiota.

Probiotics are prospective for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Until now, systematic studies on the amelioration of hypercholesterolemia have been rare in terms of (cholesterol metabolism and transportation, reshaping of gut microbiota, as well as yielding SCFAs) intervention with lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In this study, strains of , WLPL21, WLPL72, and ZDY04, from fermented food and two combinations ( WEFA23 with WLPL21 and WLPL72) were compared for their effect on hypercholesterolemia. Comprehensively, with regard to the above aspects, WLPL21 showed the best mitigatory effect among all groups, which was revealed by decreasing total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, upregulated cholesterol metabolism (, , , and ) levels in the liver, cholesterol transportation (, , and ) in the ileum or liver, and downregulated . Moreover, it reshaped the constitution of gut microbiota; specifically, the ratio of to (/) was downregulated; the relative abundance of , , and was upregulated by 7.48-14.82-fold; and that of and was then downregulated by 69.95% and 60.66%, respectively. In conclusion, WLPL21 improved cholesterol metabolism and transportation, as well as the abundance of gut microbiota, for alleviating high-cholesterol-diet-induced hypercholesterolemia.