Lymphatic transport of cholesterol from exogenous and biliary origins in nonfasting rats after intraduodenal infusions of triolein.

Labelled thoracic-duct lymph was collected from nonfasting rats with a bile fistula after simultaneous intraduodenal infusions of bile labelled with [1-2 3H] cholesterol and a nutritive mixture containing [4-14C] cholesterol. The gastrointestinal tract, feces, chylomicrons and infranatants were analysed. Both biliary and exogenous cholesterol were absorbed by lymphatic way but the recovery of 3H labelling in total lymph was markedly higher than that of 14C activity. This fact might be due to different rates of cholesterol exchanges from the two origins with the nonlabelled cholesterol present in the enterocytes and further exchanges of the enterocytes cholesterol with plasma cholesterol. Most of radioactivity was detected in chylomicrons. The relative [3H] and [14C] cholesterol specific activities were always low; thus when a little exogenous cholesterol is brought the major part of lymph cholesterol had an endogenous--other than biliary--source.