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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Cholesterol Efflux Assay
Published on: March 6, 2012
Cholesterol absorption from the intestine is a major determinant of reverse cholesterol transport from peripheral
Ephraim Sehayek1, Stanley L Hazen
1Department of Cell Biology, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio 44195, USA. sehayee@ccf.org
Objective:
We examined the effect of ezetimibe, a cholesterol absorption (CA) inhibitor, and genetic determinants of CA on reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) from subcutaneously injected macrophages using a new dual isotope label technique.
Methods And Results:
Treatment of C57BL/6J mice with ezetimibe decreased dietary CA by 86% and increased RCT from peripheral tissue macrophages (PTM) by 6-fold (P<0.0001). Moreover, congenic 14DKK mice with a modest 41% decrease in dietary CA displayed a 67% increase in RCT from PTM (P<0.007).
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that pharmacological and genetic modifiers of cholesterol absorption are major determinants of reverse cholesterol transport from peripheral tissue macrophages.
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