Action of vitamin P like compounds on lysosomal status in hypercholesterolemic rats.

Vitamin P like compounds such as quercetin and hesperidin administered at a dose of 50 mg/Kg/day along with a hypercholesterolemic diet for three weeks significantly restored the elevated cholesterol/phospholipid ratio in rats. Both these flavonoids exerted in vivo a stabilising effect on lysosomes in rat liver which had been rendered fragile in hypercholesterolemic condition. Moreover, these compounds also possessed the stabilisation effect on lysosomes in vitro. The stabilisation effect exerted on lysosomes was found to be due to the retarded release of lysosomal acid hydrolases and not to enzyme inhibition. Such stabilisation of the lysosomes may have a beneficial role in partial amelioration of hypercholesterolemic conditions.