A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF SOY PROTEIN AND GEMFIBROZIL IN REDUCING TOTAL BLOOD CHOLESTEROL IN RABBITS (SYLVAGUS FLORIDAMUS) WITH DIET-INDUCED HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

Pharmacology Thesis

The present study compares the effect of Soy Protein and Gemfibrozil in reducing blood cholesterol level in diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rabbits. Fifteen rabbits were used and were ramdomly grouped. Blood cholesterol level taken to serve as baseline. Subjects underwent acclimatization and a standard diet was given. In the induction period the subject were fed with a high fat and high carbohydrate diet to induce hypercholesterolemia. Serial blood extraxtionswere done to monitor the cholesterol level. During experimentation subjects were fed on a standard diet with the incorporation of Soy Protein in Group B and administration of Gemfibrozil on Group C. The Kruskal-Wallis One Way Analysis of Variance was used to test the changes made in the cholesterol levels of all the groups in every period duration (baseline, acclimatization, induction, and experimentation). K-R One Way-ANOVA was used to measure changes as effect of the treatment at a significant level of 0.05 as a tolerable limit of rejection level or level of error. In order to see the specific comparison of the effects of Soy Protein and Gemfibrozil in lowering total blood cholesterol, t-test of their differences were computed. The results show a significant change in the cholesterol level (t-test significant at p<.05) of the rabbits given the diet with soy protein supplement.

Department of Pharmacology