Objective: The accumulation of dioxins, characterized by its lipophilicity and persistency in human tissue, is a great concern since many of these compounds elicit adverse health effects and developmental toxicity. Although the half-life of dioxins in the human body have been described to be as long as 3-25 years, there are very few drugs or methods that can exclude them from the human body. Thus, it is necessary to establish a new method to reduce them and prevent adverse health effects. Here, a pilot study to reduce the dioxins accumulated in the human body using the cholesterol-lowering drug, colestimide, is reported.
Patients and methods: Eight male and two female subjects were investigated. All of them were treated with colestimide for six months, and the dioxin level of the blood samples was assessed before and after the treatment. The dioxins in the blood samples were measured by gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry.
Results: Nine out of the ten subjects completed the treatment, and their blood samples were analyzed. The mean dioxin level in the blood samples before the treatment was 44.0 +/- 8.22 pg-TEQ/g-fat. Six months later, the mean dioxin level was lowered about 20% on average to 34.7 +/- 5.49 pg-TEQ/g-fat.
Conclusion: Previous studies have reported that the blood dioxin level increases with age. In this study, the results suggest that colestimide can decrease the blood dioxin level of humans. A randomized placebo-controlled clinical study including large numbers of subjects are needed to confirm the present result.