Effect of β-sitosterol self-microemulsion and β-sitosterol ester with linoleic acid on lipid-lowering in hyperlipidemic mice

BACKGROUND: The hypolipidemic effect of phytosterols has been wildely recognized, but its application is limited due to its insolubility in water and low solubility in oil. In this study, β-sitosterol ester with linoleic acids and β-sitosterol self-microemulsions were prepared and their hypolipidemic effects on hyperlipidemia mice were studied. METHODS: Firstly, the mice were randomly divided into normal group and model group,they were fed with basic diet and high-fat diet for 70 days respectively. After high-fat model mice was successfully established, the model group was further divided into eight groups: HFD (high-fat diet feeding), SELA-TSO(8 ml/kg, SELA:700 mg/kg), TSO (8 ml/kg), SSSM (8 ml/kg,SS:700 mg/kg), NLSM (8 ml/kg), SSHT-TSO (8 ml/kg, SS: 700 mg/kg) and SS-TSO (8 ml/kg, SS: 700 mg/kg) groups, and treated with β-sitosterol ester with linoleic acid, β-sitosterol self-microemulsion, commercial β-sitosterol health tablets and β-sitosterol powder for 35 days, respectively, and blank control groups were established. At the end of the treatment period, the blood lipid level, tissues, cholesterol and lipids in feces of mice in each group were investigated. Statistical and analytical data with SPSS 17.0 Software,statistical significance was set at p* < 0.05 and p** < 0.01 levels . RESULTS: The order of lowering blood lipid effect is listed as: SSSM> SELA-TSO > SSHT-TSO > SS-TSO, which shows that β-sitosterolself-microemulsion have the highest treatment effect among the experimental groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a new formulation of β-sitosterol was developed, and its hypolipidemic effect was investigated. The results showed that β-sitosterol self-microemulsion has a good blood lipid lowering effect.