Effect of Pravastatin on Plasma Ketone Bodies in Diabetics with Hypercholesterolemia
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TOKUTARO SATO, MASAO OOUCHI, HIROARI NAGAKUBO,1 TOORU CHIBA,1 SUSUMU OGAWA,1 CHIHARU SATO,1 KAZUHIKO SUGIMURA1 and MOTOSI FUKUDA1
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The Section of Internal Medicine and Disability Prevention, Division of Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School and 1The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8574
Hydroxy-3 methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) is a common intermediate metabolite of cholesterol synthesis and ketone formation in the liver. In order to study the effect of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (pravastatin) on ketone formation, changes in the plasma levels of ketone bodies by treatment with pravastatin were studied in 18 non-insulin dependent diabetics with hypercholesterolemia. Body mass index, diabetic control, and plasma free fatty acid levels were not changed during the study, and the plasma levels of cholesterol decreased significantly from 250±25 to 211±34 mg /100 ml after 6 months of pravastatin treatment. The plasma levels of acetoacetic acid also significantly decreased from 37.7±22.6 to 28.4±13.4 mmol/l, and those of 3-hydroxybutyric acid and total ketone bodies also tended to decrease after pravastatin treatment. These results suggest that pravastatin decreases ketone formation in hepatic mitochondria besides cholesterol synthesis in hepatic microsome.
Key words---
pravastatin; ketone bodies; cholesterol; diabetes mellitus
© 1998 Tohoku University Medical Press
Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 185, 25-29
Address for reprints:
Dr. Tokutaro Sato, The Section of Internal Medicine and Disability Prevention, Division of Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School, 1-1 Seiryomachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8574, Japan.
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