Effect of dietary cholesterol and cholestyramine on developmental pattern of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase.

Supplementation of the diet with 2% cholesterol suppressed the increase observed in the hepatic and intestinal 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity from normally fed chicks during the first days after hatching. Cholestyramine feeding clearly increased both hepatic and intestinal reductase activities. In contrast, brain reductase did not show significant changes by cholesterol or cholestyramine feeding. Dietary cholesterol produced a clear increase in the cholesterol/lipidic phosphorus molar ratio of hepatic and intestinal microsomal membranes. However, this molar ratio did not change by cholestyramine feeding during postnatal development. Both dietary cholesterol and cholestyramine had practically no effect on the cholesterol/lipidic phosphorus molar ratio of brain microsomes. The relationship between the inhibition of reductase activity by dietary cholesterol and the increase of cholesterol/lipidic phosphorus molar ratio is in agreement with a mechanism of regulation of both hepatic and intestinal reductase by alterations of membrane fluidity, mechanism that would be already operative during the neonatal period.