ABSTRACT
Offspring of rabbits fed with cholesterol diet during pregnancy and/or lactation was more sensitive to fat load versus the offspring of rabbits fed with standard diet. Such enhancement of hyperlipidemic reaction is predominantly due to the enhanced rate of blood cholesterol increase (i.e., secretion of cholesterol-containing lipoproteins) but not to the decreased rate of cholesterol elimination from the blood stream. This was confirmed by monitoring the fate of human low-density lipoproteins intravenously injected in rabbits. The data indicate certain alterations of cholesterol metabolism regulation in the offspring of rabbits with alimentary hypercholesterolemia. Hypercholesterolemia of pregnant and lactating rabbits is important for the formation of the lipid metabolism in their offspring because cholesterol levels in the serum of female rabbits positively correlate with the expression of hypercholesterolemic and hypertriglyceridemia reactions of their offspring in response to fat load and with kinetic parameters which characterize the increase in cholesterol and its elimination from the blood stream during fat load.
