Currently, clinicians in China usually rely on the total cholesterol
(TC)4, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein
cholesterol (HDL-C), and apolipoprotein levels to reflect a patient's
cholesterol status. However, these indices are only indicative of the
cholesterol concentration and not the state of cholesterol metabolism in
the body. Blood cholesterol is mainly the result of both liver synthesis
and intestinal absorption — processes that regulate the cholesterol level
[1]. It is important to know the efficiency of cholesterol absorption and
synthesis in order to identify individual differences in cholesterol metabolism