Excess dietary lysine induces hypercholesterolemia in chickens.

Lysine and arginine supplements were fed to 5-day-old chicks to test whether they would develop hypercholesterolemia in response to excess lysine in a fashion similar to mammals. Chicks developed hypercholesterolemia with a 4-5% lysine but not with arginine supplementation. These results indicate the lysine induced hypercholesterolemia is not due to anaplerotic interactions of arginine and lysine with the urea cycle.