Impact of ursodeoxycholic acid on circulating lipid concentrations: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials

Abstract Objective The aim of this meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials was to examine whether ursodeoxycholic acid treatment is an effective lipid-lowering agent. Methods PubMed-Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were searched in order to find randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of ursodeoxycholic acid on lipid profile. A random-effect model and the generic inverse variance weighting method were used for quantitative data synthesis. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the leave-one-out method. A random-effects meta-regression model was performed to explore the association between potential confounders and the estimated effect size on plasma lipid concentrations. Results Meta-analysis of 20 treatment arms revealed a significant reduction of total cholesterol following ursodeoxycholic acid treatment (WMD: − 13.85 mg/dL, 95% CI: -21.45, − 6.25, p