Effects of clofibric acid and bezafibrate administration on activities of alkaline phosphatase and other enzymes in livers of rats.

Administration of clofibric acid and bezafibrate to rats lowers plasma lipids, increases the liver weight, and causes a slight decrease in the activity of alkaline phosphatase in plasma. However, both these drugs increase the activity of alkaline phosphatase in liver over threefold. The activity of other enzymes did not change by the same magnitude. The increase in the alkaline phosphatase activity in liver tissue appears to be due to increase in the activity of this enzyme in parenchymal cells. Clofibric acid and bezafibrate increase the activity of bilirubin-glucuronyl transferase activity over twofold in liver microsomes. It is thus evident that both these drugs cause similar changes in various enzyme activities in liver even though bezafibrate has been reported to have a much shorter biologic halflife than clofibric acid.