Effect of Lipid Lowering Diet on Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor Activity in Freshly Isolated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

. The effect of lipid lowering diet on low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity has been studied in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 16 hypercholesterolemic male subjects during a three weeks' dietary intervention trial. The participants were randomized to an intervention group or to a control group. The subjects in the intervention group had a non-significantly larger increase in LDL receptor activity, determined as degradation of 125I-LDL at 37°C, than the control group (49.7 ± 18.1 and 35.4 ± 21.2 ng/mg, respectively). Irrespective of assignment to the intervention group or control group, the eight subjects with the largest reduction in total serum cholesterol had significantly larger absolute and percentage increases in LDL receptor activity than the eight subjects with the smallest reduction in total serum cholesterol (p < 0.05). Thus, it appears that the cholesterol reduction that can be achieved in humans by dietary intervention results in a small increase in LDL receptor activity in freshly isolated PBMCs.