Inhibition of carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridemia by a disaccharidase inhibitor

The ability of an inhibitor of intestinal alpha-glucosiadase activity to prevent sucrose-induced hypertriglyceridemia was studied in nonobese rats. The results indicated that plasma triglyceride levels were approximately twice as high in untreated rats, and the reduction in plasma triglyceride levels of drug-treated rats was associated with lowered very low density lipoprotein-triglyceride secretion rates and plasma insulin levels. Since these changes could be produced with an amount of glucosidase inhibitor which did not prevent normal rate of weight gain, the possibility arises that this approach may be useful in the treatment of various hypertriglyceridemic states in man. Finally, the observation that the fall in plasma TG concentration was associated with a fall in plasma insulin concentration provides further evidence for the existence of a causal relationship between the two variables.