Coconut milk gavage enhanced fecal bile excretion by modulating hepatic Fxr expression but failed to improve fasting serum cholesterol profile in C57BL/6 mice

Abstract

The consumption of coconut milk has long been regarded as detrimental to cardiovascular health due to its high saturated fatty acid content. Contradictorily, emerging evidences have highlighted that the fatty acids in coconut lipids, which comprise mostly of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), may be beneficial to the regulation of serum cholesterol. To identify the potential health effect of coconut milk on lipid metabolism, this current study employed an intragastric gavage method on C57BL/6 mice to investigate the physiological and molecular alteration in the mice subject after 8 weeks of gavage intervention. The supplementation of coconut milk did not affect the levels of serum triglyceride, but it induced the total serum cholesterol after 2 weeks of treatment. The serum cholesterol level subsequently plateaued, but an increase in bile acid excretion was observed, most likely through the modulation of bile regulating genes, i.e. farnesoid X receptor (Fxr) and Cyp7a1. Despite that, the total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio of coconut milk group was comparable to that of the light cream group. In short, coconut milk supplementation promoted cholesterol excretion through the fecal bile route but did not significantly improve the serum cholesterol profile of C57BL/6 mice.