A factor in yogurt which lowers cholesteremia in man.

Large dietary intakes of yogurt are found to lower cholestermia in man. This effect is associated with a reduction of incorporation of radioacetate into serum cholesterol. The effect appears slowly and persists after intake of the yogurt stops suggesting that the mechanism involves the synthesis of a regulatory protein rather than an allosteric effect. The effective agent is postulated to be hydroxymethyl glutarate which inhibits the regulatory enzyme hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase (EC 1.1.1.3.4).