The Effect of Triparanol on Calcium and Cholesterol Levels in the Blood Sera of Laying Hens

Abstract INTRODUCTION ACCORDING to Blohm et al. (1959), triparanol (l-(4(diethyl-amino-ethoxy) pheny)-l-(p-tolyl)-2-(p-chlorophenyl)-ethanol, or MER-29) reduced the cholesterol levels in some of the tissues of the rat. In rats fed 25 mg./kg./day of triparanol for three months, cholesterol was reduced 62% in the plasma, 40% in the erythrocytes, 40 % in the liver, 27% in the skeletal muscle, 33% in the lung, and 21% in the aorta. Cholesterol levels of the brain and adipose tissue did not change. Further research by Blohm and MacKenzie (1959) employing acetate-1-C14 indicated that triparanol inhibited the formation of cholesterol between the “higher-counting companions” of cholesterol and cholesterol itself. Kayser (1960) confirmed these results with an investigation in which the cholesterol levels of rats fed triparanol dropped, while the amount of desmosterol (thought to be a precursor of cholesterol) increased. Moore (1948), Brandt et al. (1951), and Clegg et al. (1956) have noted that when a hen begins …