American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 16, 309-314, Copyright © 1965 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Utilization of Fat-Soluble Vitamins by Rats and Chicks Fed Cholestyramine, a Bile Acid Sequestrant

¹ From the Department of Nutritional Research, Mead Johnson Research Center, Evansville, Indiana

The effects of dietary cholestyramine, an anion exchange resin, on the absorption and storage of vitamin A in rats and vitamin K in chicks were studied. The addition of 2 per cent cholestyramine to a high-fat diet containing growth-limiting levels of vitamin A reduced body weight gains of weanling rats. With larger intakes of vitamin A, dietary cholestyramine had no effect on weight gain, but reduced liver storage of dietary vitamin A or vitamin A given by stomach tube daily. The effect of cholestyramine on the liver storage of vitamin A was greater with vitamin A as palmitate than with vitamin A as acetate or alcohol, suggesting that hydrolysis of the vitamin A ester and absorption of vitamin A are affected.

The addition of 2 per cent cholestyramine to a diet marginal in vitamin K activity slightly lengthened prothrombin times in chicks after two weeks, but not after four weeks. Subsequent depletion on a vitamin K-free diet showed that vitamin K stores were lower in chicks given cholestyramine.