Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death in industrialised countries. Raised plasma triglycerides (TGs) have been shown to be an independent risk factor for CVD. Recently, a new gene designated APOAV has been identified in the APOAI/APOCIII/APOAIV gene cluster by comparative sequencing by Pennacchio et al. The human APOAV gene consists of four exons and codes for a 369 ami...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to resolve the striking controversy between our previous report that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) enhances activated protein C (APC)/protein S anticoagulant actions and a subsequent, contradicting report that HDL lacks this activity. APPROACH AND RESULTS When fresh HDL preparations from 2 laboratories were subjected to Superose 6 column chromatography, fra...

OBJECTIVE Plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) is involved in the metabolism of HDL and apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins. Atherosclerosis susceptibility is decreased in mice with PLTP deficiency that is associated with decreased liver production of apoB-containing lipoproteins and increase in their antioxidant. To investigate additionally the effect of PLTP on the developm...

OBJECTIVE Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), a ligand-activated transcription factor, has pleiotropic effects, including regulation of macrophage differentiation and lipid homeostasis. The PPARgamma ligands, thiazolidinediones (TZDs), attenuate atherosclerosis in mice by uncertain mechanisms. The objective of this study was to determine whether activation of PPARgamma...

Objective We test the hypothesis that aspartate aminotransferase (AST) may be associated inversely with serum triglycerides (TG) and positively with high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in young athletes because athletes have larger amounts of muscle mass. Research design and methods Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated between serum AST and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ...

Menopause is associated with changes in lipid levels resulting in increased risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events. Hormone therapy (HT) and atorvastatin have been used to improve lipid profile in postmenopausal women. Effects of HT, atorvastatin and APOE polymorphisms on serum lipids and APOE and LXRA expression were evaluated in 87 hypercholesterolemic postmenopausal women, randoml...

Oct-3/4 is the earliest expressed transcription factor that is known to be crucial in murine pre-implantation development. In this report we asked whether methylation participates in controlling changes in Oct-3/4 expression and thus may play an important role in controlling normal embryogenesis. We show that the Oct-3/4 gene is unmethylated from the blastula stage but undergoes de novo methyla...

OBJECTIVE A common polymorphism in the promoter of the apolipoprotein B (apoB) gene, a C to T change at position -516, increases the transcription rate of apoB, resulting in elevated circulating levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. METHODS AND RESULTS We tested the hypothesis that carriers of the -516T allele, who may display consistent elevation in plasma cholesterol over the...

Persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have an elevated risk of atherosclerosis. High-density lipoproteins (HDL) normally protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD), but this may be attenuated by serum amyloid A (SAA). In a case-control study of young females, blood samples were compared between subjects with T2DM (n = 42) and individuals without T2DM (n = 42). SAA and apolipoprotein AI...

The aim of this study was to determine differences in the gene expression profile of kidney tissue from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and control rats using DNA microarray analysis. Total RNA was extracted from the kidney tissue of the T2D and control rats using the original single step method. cDNA retro-transcribed from an equal quantity of mRNA was labeled with Cy5 and Cy3 fluorescence and ...