The hypolipidemic effect of lifibrol during a long term treatment of pigs.

We investigated the hypolipidemic property of lifibrol in male and female minipigs in a long term trial over a treatment period of 6 months. Oral dosages between 12.5 mg/kg BW and 100 mg/kg BW lifibrol resulted in a strong reduction of serum cholesterol after only two weeks of treatment. The hypocholesterolemic effect was not counterbalanced and reached -76% at the end of the trial in the male pigs and -70% in the female pigs (100 mg/kg BW lifibrol). The reduction of serum cholesterol was mainly brought about by the reduction of LDL-cholesterol. Serum triglycerides seemed to be less influenced by lifibrol than serum cholesterol. The application of lifibrol had no significant influence on the weight gain of the pigs and did not alter the serum levels of AST and ALT. Lifibrol was well tolerated and the animals showed no symptoms of incompatibility.