STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to assess the interrelationship between alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, body weight, and blood lipid concentrations. DESIGN This was the cross sectional (screening) phase of a prospective study. The main outcome measure was the blood lipids (serum total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides). SETTING General practices in 24 towns (The British Regiona...

Cerebral deposits of beta-amyloid (betaA) are a major feature in Alzheimer's disease. betaA is derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP). APP is subject to N- and O-glycosylation and undergoes a series of proteolytic cleavages that lead to the release of betaA or of a non-amyloidogenic secreted form of APP (APPs). We used primary neuronal and glial cultures to investigate how cholesterol aff...

The effect of cholesterol enrichment on vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) calcium homeostasis was studied by evaluating calcium uptake, efflux, and intracellular content in cultured VSMC derived from the rat pulmonary artery. Incubation of VSMC with liposomes consisting of free cholesterol (FC) and phospholipid (2:1 molar ratio, 1 mg FC/ml medium) for 24 h resulted in a 69 +/- 19% increase (P ...

OBJECTIVE To compare the modifications in lipids between patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving etanercept plus methotrexate (ETA + MTX) versus methotrexate (MTX) and their relationship with serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). METHODS In an observational cohort study, we compared changes in lipid levels in patients receiving ETA + MTX versus MTX in RA. These groups...

The aim of the study was to examine lipid profiles, arterial stiffness (AS), carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), in 55 women with RA without overt cardiovascular disease (СVD) treated with rituximab (RTX).The following parameters were recorded before and 24 weeks after RTX therapy (2 infusions of 500 or 1,000 mg RTX intravenously, fortnightly): plasma total cholesterol (TC), high-density lip...

BACKGROUND Statins alter lipid concentrations. This systematic review determined the efficacy of particular statins, in terms of their ability to alter cholesterol. REVIEW METHODS PubMed, the Cochrane Library, references lists of reports, and reviews were searched (September 2001) for randomised, double blind trials of statins for cholesterol in trials of 12 weeks or longer. Mean change in to...

Cholesterol 'la-hydroxylase (P450c7) is the first and rate-limiting enzyme in bile acid biosynthesis and is the product of a cytochrome P450 gene, CYP7. We have previously reported the cloning of a full-length human cholesterol 'la-hydroxylase cDNA (Karam, W. G., and J. Y. L. Chiang. 1992. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 185: 588-595). Using this clone in a polymerase chain reaction, we have gen...

Abstract Introduction Short sleep (< 7 hours of sleep/24 hr. period) duration is associated with unhealthy cholesterol levels, a significant cardiovascular risk marker. Precious epidemiological studies indicate that Hispanics are at increased for hypercholesteremia. However, little known about whether contributes to high among Hispanics. We sought investigate the following: 1) Examine pr...

On a global scale, there is an increasing tendency for a more aggressive treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Minor effects of statins on brain cholesterol metabolism have been reported in some in vivo animal studies, and it seems that this is due to a local effect of the drug. We treated male mice of the inbred strain C57/BL6 with a high daily dose of lipophilic simvastatin (100 mg/kg b.wt.) or ...

Aberrant cholesterol metabolism has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent findings have suggested an interaction of Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) proteins in intracellular cholesterol transport and in maintaining cell cholesterol balance. Underexpression of NPC1 in concert with under-expression of ABCA1 would result in increased cholesterol...