Is chocolate a dietary source of cholate (cholic acid). Medline search on cholate brings up
chocolate and I'm wondering if they are related in some way or the search is simply finding
spelling errors.
Reason I was searching for cholate:
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2003 Sep;27(9):1499-506. Related Articles, Links
Dietary cholate is required for antiatherogenic effects of ethanol in mouse models.
Deeg MA.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND Human consumption of moderate amounts of ethanol is associated with reduced
cardiovascular events. Studies examining the effect of ethanol on atherosclerosis in mouse models
have yielded conflicting results that may be due to differences in dietary fat and cholate content.
To determine if dietary cholate influences ethanol's effect on atherosclerosis, we fed
apolipoprotein E-/- and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)-/- mice different liquid diets with
or without ethanol. METHODS Apolipoprotein E-/- mice were fed a low-fat or high saturated fat,
cholate-containing diet with or without ethanol for 3 to 10 weeks, and LDLR-/- mice were fed a
low-fat, high saturated fat, or high saturated fat diet with cholate with or without ethanol for 7
weeks. At the end of the feeding study, aortic root lesion size was determined and compared with
serum cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Because dietary cholate
increases hepatic nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB and ethanol inhibits NF-kappaB, we also examined the
effect of ethanol on aortic NF-kappaB binding activity. RESULTS Adding ethanol to a low-fat diet had
no effect on lesion size. Similarly, ethanol had no effect on lesion size in LDLR-/- mice consuming
a high saturated fat diet. Adding ethanol to a high-fat, cholate-containing diet for either strain
resulted in a 25% to 50% reduction in lesion size. Dietary cholate increased and ethanol reduced
NF-kappaB binding activity in the aorta. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that ethanol inhibits
atherosclerosis in the presence of dietary cholate, which may occur via an anti-inflammatory
mechanism. Thanks
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