Abstract
The relationship between fecal bacterial numbers and cholesterol contents in plasma and liver was examined in four dietary regimens of rats: commercially available stock diet, lactose (40%) diet, sucrose (62.8%) diet and galactose (20%) diet. When fecal bacteria were cultivated aerobically, there were found more Lactobacilli, less general aerobes and less E. coli in the stock diet group than in the sugar diet groups. There were no differences in these aerobes among three sugar-groups. Numbers of anaerobes cultured with a blood agar or a general Lactobacilli medium showed no difference by diets. The lactose diet containing cholesterol didn't show any changes of fecal bacterial counts comparing to the sucrose diet as a control, in spite of inducing the higher cholesterol level in plasma and liver.
