Differences in response to egg-derived dietary cholesterol result in distinct lipoprotein profiles while plasma concentrations of carotenoids and choline are not affected in a young healthy population

Abstract Background It has been demonstrated that some individuals (approximately 1/3 of the population) can be classified as hyper-responders to dietary cholesterol. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the response to dietary cholesterol (provided by eggs) would mediate lipoprotein metabolism and the bioavailability of lutein, zeaxanthin, and choline, nutritional components present in eggs. Methods We recruited 36 healthy subjects who underwent a two-week washout period in which they consumed zero eggs. Participants were then consecutively fed 1, 2, and 3 eggs/day for 4 weeks each. In this analysis, we compared intake of 0 eggs/day to 3 eggs/day (540 additional mg of dietary cholesterol/day). Plasma lipids, lipoprotein particle subfractions, and plasma lutein, zeaxanthin, and choline were measured. We classified the normal plasma response to dietary cholesterol as an increase of 2.2 mg/dL for each 100 mg of dietary cholesterol/day. Therefore, those individuals with >12 mg/dL increase in plasma cholesterol after the intervention (n = 12) were considered hyper-responders while the remaining 24 subjects presented changes in plasma cholesterol ranging from −16 to 9 mg/dL and were considered normal responders. Results Compared to 0 eggs, hyper-responders had significant increases in plasma total, LDL and HDL cholesterol (p  Conclusions These results suggest that egg intake increases the bioavailability of carotenoids and choline present in eggs independently of individual responses to dietary cholesterol. Further, the observed increases in large HDL in all individuals could be associated with HDL being a major transporter of lutein and zeaxanthin in plasma.