Influence of Dietary Supplements of Vitamin D3 and Various Fats on Cholesterol and Fatty Acid Composition of the Blood and Body of Growing-Finishing Swine

Previous work at this station suggested that vitamin D2, when fed with or without dietary cholesterol, depressed blood cholesterol levels of swine (Jurgens, Peo and Vipperman, 1967) and rats (Jurgens, Blunn and Peo, 1968). While not proven to be the cause, blood cholesterol levels have been used as one of the main criteria to estimate the development of atherosclerosis in man (Rabinowitz, Meyerson and Wohl, 1960; Swell, Law and Treadwell, 1962). Several investigators have reported that supplementation of unsaturated fats (Ahrens et al., 1957; Okey and Lyman, 1957; Avigan and Steinberg, 1958; Peifer, 1966) and especially linoleic acid (Jagannathan, 1962; Swell et al., 1962), into the diet will reduce blood cholesterol levels. Thus, the present work was undertaken to study the effects of dietary supplements of vitamin D3 with either a highly unsaturated fat (safflower oil) or a highly saturated fat (coconut oil) on the cholesterol content of blood and the cholesterol and fatty acid composition of certain tissues of growing-finishing swine