Peroxisomal proliferation in heart and liver of mice receiving chlorpromazine, ethyl 2(5(4-chlorophenyl)pentyl) oxiran-2-carboxylic acid or high fat diet: a biochemical and morphometrical comparative study.

Chlorpromazine and related drugs including trifluoperazine, clopenthixol, and fluphenazine are in vitro inhibitors of mitochondrial carnitine palmitoyltransferase and cytochrome c oxidase and of peroxisomal carnitine octanoyltransferase from mouse heart and liver. By contrast with 0.1% ethyl 2(5(4-chlorophenyl)pentyl) oxiran-2-carboxylic acid or 0.1% clofibrate-containing diets, the treatment of mice with 0.1% chlorpromazine-containing diet fails to induce peroxisomal proliferation in liver and heart. An 0.5% chlorpromazine-containing diet did induce peroxisomal proliferation. Inhibition of peroxisomal beta-oxidation presumably via the reduction of carnitine octanoyltransferase by chlorpromazine elicits the appearance in liver of lamellar structures resembling those seen in human peroxisomal disorders and induces accumulation of very long-chain fatty acids in plasma. The peroxisomal proliferation induced by administration of high dose chlorpromazine is ascribed to its ability to depress mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation by impairing cytochrome c oxidase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase activities.