On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Ray Audette wrote:

> So here we have two Scandanavian guys, one Icelandic-American and the
> other a Swede sitting around drinking coffee.  Could the cafetol and
> kahweal have elavated their cholesterol because their brewing method
> didn't filter it out as percolating or the use of paper filters would
> have?
>
> Perhaps someone could find out about these oils from medline.

There's a fair amount of research on these substances.  I don't
know offhand whether Stefansson and Andersen were permitted to
drink coffee; I'll have to check and see if that was mentioned.

Below is a sample of the research on cafestol and kahweol.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]
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J Lipid Res 1998 Apr;39(4):901-912

Effect of a coffee lipid (cafestol) on cholesterol metabolism in
human skin fibroblasts.

Halvorsen B, Ranheim T, Nenseter MS, Huggett AC, Drevon CA

Institute for Nutrition Research, Faculty of Medicine, University
of Oslo, Norway.

Consumption of boiled coffee promotes an elevation of plasma
cholesterol concentration in humans. The active compounds found
in the lipid fraction of the coffee have been identified as the
diterpenes cafestol and kahweol. We have studied the effects of
pure cafestol on cholesterol metabolism in human skin fibroblasts
(HSF). The uptake of [125I]-labeled tyramine cellobiose-labeled
low density lipoprotein ([125I]TC-LDL) was decreased by about 50%
(P< 0.05) after 18 h preincubation time with cafestol (20
microg/ml), as compared to the control cells. The specific
binding of radiolabeled LDL was reduced by 54% (P < 0.05) after
preincubation for 18 h with cafestol. A reduced amount of LDL
receptors was demonstrated by a protein-normalized Scatchard plot
analysis (20% decrease in Bmax) as well as by immunoblotting
(25%) after cafestol incubation.  No significant effect was
observed on the level of mRNA for the LDL receptor after 11 and
23 h incubation with cafestol. Furthermore, we transfected HSF
cells with a promoter region for the LDL receptor gene linked to
a reporter gene, chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT). No
change was seen in the CAT activity after incubation with
cafestol (20 microg/ml). Moreover, cafestol caused a 2.3-fold (P
< 0.05) higher incorporation of radiolabeled [14C]oleic acid into
cholesteryl esters after 24 h incubation, as compared to control
cells, suggesting an increased acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyl
transferase (ACAT) activity. Incorporation of [14C]acetate into
cholesterol was reduced by approximately 40% (P < 0.05) with
cafestol (20 microg/ml), as compared to control after 24 h
preincubation, indicating a decreased 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl
CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase activity. Our results suggest that intake
of cafestol may cause increased concentration of plasma
cholesterol via the down-regulation of low density lipoprotein
receptors by post-transcriptional mechanisms.

UI: 98215238