Mucosal coenzyme A-dependent cholesterol esterification after intestinal perfusion of lipids in rats

Coenzyme A-dependent esterification of cholesterol was determined in intestinal mucosal homogenates prepared after duodenal perfusion of cholesterol-free lipid emulsions for 5 h in unanesthetized rats. Cholesterol esterification rates were lowest and the mucosal cholesterol pool was greatly reduced after the same lipid infusions that, in lymph fistula rats, had produced chylomicrons deficient in cholesterol esters. CoA-dependent esterification rates were sufficient to account for all the cholesterol esters secreted in mesenteric lymph chylomicrons. During triglyceride secretion by the gut, unesterified cholesterol for chylomicron membranes may be maintained both by suppressing mucosal CoA-dependent cholesterol ester formation and from a mobilizable unesterified cholesterol pool within the mucosa.