Development of lipidic composition of neonatal chick liver and intestine microsomes: changes induced by cholesterol feeding

Abstract 1. 1. Changes in cholesterol and phospholipid content of chick liver and intestine microsomes were studied throughout the two first weeks of life. 2. 2. Differences observed throughout postnatal development were mainly due to the free cholesterol. 3. 3. Cholesterol feeding resulted in a clear increase of the amounts of both free and esterified cholesterol. 4. 4. Phospholipid content of chick liver and intestine microsomes did not change significantly after hatching. 5. 5. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine were found to be the major phospholipids. 6. 6. Although the amount of each phospholipid could be affected by cholesterol feeding, its relative percentage did not change by this treatment.