A new view of human cholesterolemia.

As the inflows in the cholesterol system by absorption and synthesis are known, laws governing the cholesterolemia of rats in dynamic equilibria have recently been deduced. The method of analysis used for rats was applied in this theoretical work to data obtained by various authors with normal men. Because the sum of the inflows are only furnished, the method cannot be developed completely. Nevertheless it appears that the laws should be common to rats and humans. According to this hypothesis, the major deduction is that the dynamics of plasma cholesterol is assured by a process whose parameter is a linear function of the synthesis flow. Consequently the concentration of cholesterol of the synthesis source is as lower as the synthesis flow higher. The turnover of alimentary cholesterol in the plasma follows that of synthesized cholesterol. Hence an increase of the synthesis flow also causes a decrease in the concentration of cholesterol from the alimentary source. Simultaneously however this latter concentration is proportional to the absorption flow of alimentary cholesterol. Application of the analysis method to data obtained from patients with various disorders suggests that their cholesterol-system is intrinsically the same as that of normal men. But it could not be shown whether the values of two constants involved in the parameter equation are modified or not.