Patent ID: 7255850

Claim:
A method for determining the rate of the first arm of reverse cholesterol transport in a living animal, said method comprising: a) administering one or more isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules, isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules in high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles, or isotopically labeled cholesterol precursors to the living animal for sufficient time to achieve or calculate a steady state isotopic content, enrichment or specific activity of labeled cholesterol; b) obtaining one or more isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules from plasma or plasma HDL in the living animal; c) measuring isotopic content, isotopic pattern, rate of change of isotopic content, or rate of change of isotopic pattern of the isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules; and d) calculating the rate of dilution by endogenous unlabeled cholesterol of the administered isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules, isotopically labeled cholesterol molecules in high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles, or isotopically labeled cholesterol precursors to determine the rate of the first arm of reverse cholesterol transport in the animal.