In Vitro and In Vivo Study of Octacosanol Metabolism

The present study demonstrates that octacosanoic acid is formed after incubation of fibroblast cultures with 3H-octacosanol and after oral dosing with policosanol to rats. In addition, we demonstrated that shortened saturated (myristic, palmitic and stearic) and unsaturated (oleic, palmitoleic) FA are also formed after oral dosing with policosanol to monkeys. The present results are consistent with the fact that octacosanol metabolism is linked to FA metabolism via β-oxidation, but further studies need to explore the occurrence of more metabolites proving such hypothesis.