Clofibrate hypocholesterolemia associated with increased hepatic copper.

Copper metabolism is important in the etiology of ischemic heart disease according to a new hypothesis. Hypercholesterolemic people may be more likely to be malnourished in copper than normocholesterolemic people. Clofibrate was fed to rats as a component of a diet that produces copper deficiency. Rats fed clofibrate had 20 to 29% (P less than 0.003) lower concentration of cholesterol in blood plasma and higher copper in liver (47 to 78%, P less than 0.025) and plasma (19 to 25%, P less than 0.03). The experiments are a successful test of the hypotheses that clofibrate is active in animals malnourished in copper and that the change in cholesterol metabolism induced by clofibrate may be the result of a change in copper metabolism. Clofibrate is a member of a class of cholesterotropic and cuprotropic chemicals.