Role of simvastatin and antioxidants in modulating lipidemia

Healthy rabbits were made hypercholestrolic by administering cholesterol (250 mg/kg,p.o.) once daily for seven days to study investigate if simvastatin have synergistic hypolipidemic effect with antioxidants. from day 8,groups (n=5) were given either vitamin e,alpha lipoic acid (ala),simvastatin,vitamin e+ala,simvastatin+ala or placebo for up to the 24th day. vitamin e did not show any hypolipidemic effect. simvastatin,simvastatin+ala and ala alone showed 56.2%,50.4% and 24.9% decrease in lipids,respectively. no therapy caused any increase in hdl level except simvastatin (25.8%) and simvastatin+ala (26.7%). ldl levels were significantly lowered by ala (25.2%),simvastatin (53.8%) and simvastatin+ala (50.1%). ala,per se significantly decreased (18.0%) triglyceride levels and also potentiated the triglyceride lowering effect of simvastatin. vitamin e also enhanced ala ability to lower triglycerides. it is concluded that ala has cholesterol,ldl and triglyceride lowering activity and it can potentiate hypoilipidemic effects of simvastatin.