Increased plasma cholesterol and decreased body lipid levels in Wistar rats following pirinixil (BR 931) treatment

Pirinixil (BR 931), a new hypolipidemic agent, which has been reported to increase high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in experimental animals was fed for 21 days (0.05% in the diet) to Wistar rats on a semi-syn thetic diet. Pirinixil increased plasma cholesterol levels significantly without affecting plasma triglycerides. Liver cholesterol and triglycerides were markedly reduced by treatment, while combined plasma and liver lipid levels decreased approximately 20%. Liver HMG-CoA reductase activity was not affected, but cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase was significantly reduced, thus confirming data with other hypolipidemic agents in rats. The experimental findings do not support the recent hypothesis that hypolipidemic agents may increase total body lipid levels.