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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Enrichment of Mammalian Tissues and Xenopus Oocytes with Cholesterol
Published on: March 25, 2020
Micellar phytosterols effectively reduce cholesterol absorption at low doses
Min-Jeong Shin1, Jong Ho Lee, Yangsoo Jang
1Yonsei Cardiovascular Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 134 Shinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Background:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of micellar phytosterols on cholesterol absorption in humans.
Methods:
24 healthy adults (mean age 37 years, 16 women and 8 men) underwent four cholesterol-absorption tests to compare the effects of micellar phytosterols supplement containing 500, 300, 200 mg phytosterols and placebo on cholesterol absorption in a cross-over design. Individual absorption tests were separated by 2 weeks. Using the single oral isotope method, inhibition of cholesterol absorption was determined by gas-chromatography mass spectrometry measurement of the differences in plasma hexadeuterated cholesterol enrichment 4 days after test meals with or without phytosterols. Each test meal provided 500 kcal and 89 mg cholesterol including 40 mg tracer cholesterol. We used a general linear mixed model with SAS to test the significance of treatment effect.
Results:
Micellar phytosterols had a significant overall effect on cholesterol absorption (p = 0.0002), reduced cholesterol absorption by 23.3% at a dose of 300 mg phytosterols (p = 0.0004) and by 32.0% at a dose of 500 mg phytosterols (p = 0.0001) compared with the placebo. The effect of 200 mg treatment did not reach statistical significance but there was a tendency (p = 0.052).
Conclusion:
Water-dispersible, micellar phytosterols reduced cholesterol absorption effectively at very low doses.
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