Plant sterols may unlock new cholesterol control pathway

This study tests whether plant sterols, found in some foods, change how a newly discovered protein called cholesin works. Cholesin is released from the gut after eating cholesterol and tells the liver to make less cholesterol. Researchers will give 23 healthy adults three different shakes—low cholesterol, high cholesterol, and high cholesterol with plant sterols—and measure gene activity in their blood and gut cells. The goal is to understand how plant sterols might help lower cholesterol at the molecular level.