Abstract
The effect of concomitantly feeding depolymerized sodium alginate (DSA, average molecular weight of 5×104) and cholesterol on the serum and liver cholesterol levels in rats was investigated for 14days. The dietary concentrations of DSA were 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0%. The hypercholesterolemia induced by dietary cholesterol and cholate was significantly suppressed by the addition of more than 1.0 of DSA to the diet, no dose dependency being observed between the 1.0 and 4.0 % DSA levels. The increment of liver cholesterol content was suppressed by the addition of 4.0% of DSA to the diet.DSA is assumed to have had a suppressive effect on the serum and liver cholesterol contents.
