Molecular and cellular biochemistry
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Mol. Cell. Biochem. · Dec 2010
Anti-hyperlipidemic and insulin sensitizing activities of fenofibrate reduces aortic lipid deposition in hyperlipidemic Golden Syrian hamster.
Cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) and apolipoprotein (apo) E are important in peroxisome proliferation activated receptor-α (PPAR-α)-mediated regulation of lipoprotein metabolism. Therefore, popularly used apolipoprotein E knockout mice are not suitable to evaluate PPAR-α agonists. In this study, we aimed to: a) evaluate hamster as a model for insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis; and b) investigate the effect of a PPAR-α activator, fenofibrate, in this model. ⋯ Our results showed that fenofibrate treatment reduced aortic lipid deposition by 70%. These findings suggest that hamster may be an adequate animal model to evaluate the efficacy of lipid lowering, insulin sensitizing and antiatherosclerotic agents. We also show that fenofibrate is an effective antiatherosclerotic agent in hyperlipidemic hamster model.