Body fat and fat distribution by anthropometry and the response to high-fat cholesterol-containing diet in monkeys

Considerable variability exists among individuals in the response of plasma cholesterol to changes in dietary fat and cholesterol, and obesity is one variable reported to affect this response. This study was performed to determine the relationship between body fat and changes in plasma cholesterol in cynomolgus monkeys fed a high-fat cholesterol-containing diet for 12 months. The animals gained significant body weight (body mass index increased from 30.5 +/- 0.5 to 35.7 +/- 2.8 kg/m2) and skinfold parameters of body fat increased as well. Total cholesterol increased from 109 +/- 4 to 390 +/- 25 mg/dl (P < 0.001), and there were also significant increases in LDL- and HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride. While there was very little relationship between body fat and plasma lipids before the diet, after 12 months, there were significant negative correlations between total and LDL-cholesterol and anthropometric measures of body fat (r ranged from -0.37 to -0.55, P < 0.01). The correlations were not affected when the effects of baseline body mass index and serum cholesterol and total food intake were controlled by partial correlation analysis. In this sample of animals, the acquisition of greater body fat appeared to protect against rises in cholesterol in response to consumption of a high-fat cholesterol-containing diet.