OBJECTIVE Intracellular cholesterol distribution impacts cell function; however, processes influencing endogenous cholesterol trafficking remain largely unknown. Atherosclerosis is associated with vascular inflammation and these studies address the role of inflammatory mediators on smooth muscle cell cholesterol trafficking. METHODS AND RESULTS Interestingly, in the absence of an exogenous ch...

Twelve hepatocellular nodules were characterized in the resected livers from 3 patients (2 men and a woman) with alcoholic cirrhosis. Imaging techniques suggested that the nodules were hypervascular and may be hepatocellular carcinoma. Five nodules (4-31 mm in diameter) were serum amyloid A-positive hepatocellular neoplasm, which shares features with inflammatory hepatocellular adenoma. The rem...

Inflammatory atherosclerosis is increased in subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Normally high-density lipoproteins (HDL) protect against atherosclerosis; however, in the presence of serum amyloid-A- (SAA-) related inflammation this property may be reduced. Fasting blood was obtained from fifty subjects with T1DM, together with fifty age, gender and BMI matched control subjects. HDL ...

Using new specific and sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for inhibin A and inhibin B, we measured these proteins in amniotic fluid (AF), maternal serum (MS), and umbilical cord serum in normal pregnancies. Inhibin A levels in AF rose from a median (10-90th percentile) level of 615 (158.2-1124.6) pg/mL at 14 weeks to 1336.0 (489.4-2084.1) pg/mL at 20 weeks, and inhibin B rose from 216...

BACKGROUND Deposition of amyloid fibrils derived from circulating acute-phase reactant serum amyloid A protein (SAA) causes systemic AA amyloidosis, a serious complication of many chronic inflammatory disorders. Little is known about the natural history of AA amyloidosis or its response to treatment. METHODS We evaluated clinical features, organ function, and survival among 374 patients with ...

The human cerebral and systemic amyloidoses and prion-associated spongiform encephalopathies are acquired or inherited protein folding disorders in which normally soluble proteins or peptides are converted into fibrillar aggregates. This is a nucleation-dependent process that can be initiated or accelerated by fibril seeds formed from homologous or heterologous amyloidogenic precursors that ser...

OBJECTIVE We sought to investigate whether elevated levels of acute-phase serum amyloid A (A-SAA) protein precede the onset of type 2 diabetes independently of other risk factors, including parameters of glucose metabolism. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Within the population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) S4 study, we measured A-SAA concentrations in 836 init...

Serum amyloid A protein (SAA), apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), apolipoprotein B (apoB) concentrations, and creatine kinase (CK)-MB isoenzyme activity were serially measured in 10 patients during the course of acute myocardial infarction. Pronounced increases in SAA concentrations were observed in all patients during infarction. The highest SAA values were observed, on average, 67 hours after the o...