FTIR spectroscopy reveals lipid droplets in drug resistant laryngeal carcinoma cells through detection of increased ester vibrational bands intensity

Specific differences in FTIR spectra of HEp-2 cells and their multidrug resistant 7T subline were observed and the increased cholesteryl ester content and enhanced lipid droplet formation in 7T cells were verified.

Dietary rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) stalk fibre stimulates cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase gene expression and bile acid excretion in cholesterol-fed C57BL/6J mice

Both experimental and clinical studies have indicated that a novel source of dietary fibre, produced from rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) stalks, is potentially hypolipidaemic. The present study, using C57BL/6J mice, was undertaken to examine if this fibre source affects cholesterol degradation. Mice were maintained on semi-purified diets containing 50 g rhubarb fibre or cellulose/kg with or without 5 g cholesterol/kg for 4 weeks. In cholesterol-supplemented mice, rhubarb fibre caused significant lowering of plasma cholesterol (-13 %) and the hepatic concentrations of total cholesterol (-34 %) and cholesteryl esters (-34 %). In parallel to the reduction of hepatic cholesteryl ester content, animals fed on rhubarb fibre had significantly lower activity of acyl CoA: cholesterol acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.26) than the mice maintained on a diet containing cellulose and cholesterol. Rhubarb-fibre feeding accelerated the faecal bile-acid loss and diminished the gall-bladder bile-acid pool in both the normal and the cholesterol-fed mice. The increase in the bile-acid excretion was positively correlated with an increased activity as well as mRNA abundance of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (EC 1.14.13.17). The increased excretion of bile acids and induction of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase activity may account for the hypocholesterolaemic effect of rhubarb fibre.