The hypolipidemic effect of a new ACAT inhibitor, VULM 1457, in diabetic-hypercholesterolaemic rats.

The use of inhibitors of enzyme acyl-CoA: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) seems to be a novel potential approach for a therapeutic treatment of dyslipidaemias and atherosclerosis. VULM 1457 is an ACAT inhibitor, which has expressed potent hypolipidemic and antiatherosclerotic effects in previous studies. In this study, we used streptozocin-induced diabetic rats, which were fed a fat-cholesterol diet to evaluate the affect of VULM 1457 on the atherogenic lipids levels in both plasma and liver. VULM 1457, with a slight influence on triglyceride levels, significantly reduced plasma and hepatic cholesterol concentrations (p < 0.05, p < 0.001; respectively) in the diabetic-hypercholesterolaemic rats.