Abstract
Acute effect (1 hour after administration) and the effects for relative short periods of cholestyramine on the cholesterol and triglyceride levels of plasma and lipoprotein fractions, apolipoprotein levels, and platelet aggregation were studied in 13 male healthy volunteers (25.5 year old in average, ranged from 22 to 29 year old).
After 10 days administration of cholestyramine (12g/day, 3 tid), total, VLDL- and LDL-cholesterol were significantly decreased, while the HDL-and HDL2-cholesterol were significantly increased. Cholestyramine also had the effect of the reduction in the total and LDL-cholesterol, and increase in the HDL-cholesterol even 1 hour after the administration. On the other hand, there were no significant changes of plasma triglyceride both at 1 hour after the administration of cholestyramine and 10 days for the administration of cholestyramine.
The apolipoprotein B level was significantly decreased, while there were no significant changes of other apolipoprotein levels for the 10 days administration of cholestyramine.
There were no effects of cholestyramine on platelet aggregation.
From these results, we concluded that the cholestyramine reduced the total, VLDL- and LDL-cholesterol, and increased the HDL-cholesterol for the relative short period as many reports. It was also suggested that there are acute effects of cholestyramine on the LDL-cholesterol.
