Effect of fenofibrate on fatty liver in rats treated with alcohol

Although fatty liver and hyperlipemia are common in chronic alcoholics, there is no practical approach to prevent alcoholic fatty liver. Recently, it has been reported that fibrates bind to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha and induce beta-oxidation enzymes of fatty acid in mitochondria. In this study, we investigated the effect of fenofibrate, one of the fibrates, on fatty liver in rats induced by chronic alcohol feeding. Furthermore, we studied the effect of fenofibrate on hyperlipemia in patients with alcoholic fatty liver.

Male Wistar rats were treated with liquid diet that contained ethanol (36% of total calories) or an isocaloric carbohydrate instead of ethanol for 4 weeks. Fenofibrate was administered orally with the liquid diets for 4 weeks at a concentration of either 0, 5, or 30 mg/kg body weight/day. As a pilot study, eight patients with alcoholic fatty liver were treated with 200 mg/day of fenofibrate for 4 weeks.

After fenofibrate administration, fatty degeneration of liver was not observed in three of the five rats treated with 5 mg and in all rats treated with 30 mg of fenofibrate. Hepatic triglyceride content was decreased significantly in rats treated with 30 mg of fenofibrate compared with the rats not treated with fenofibrate. Serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels also were decreased after treatment with fenofibrate. In eight alcoholic patients treated with 200 mg of fenofibrate for 4 weeks, serum triglyceride level decreased significantly compared with the levels before treatment. All patients continued alcohol consumption during fenofibrate administration.

The results of the present investigation suggest that fenofibrate may be useful to prevent alcoholic fatty liver. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are necessary to obtain definitive results.