Mouse peritoneal macrophages can be induced to accumulate cholesteryl esters by incubating them in the presence of acetylated low density lipoprotein. The cholesteryl esters are sequestered in neutral lipid droplets that remain in the cell even when the acetylated low density lipoprotein is removed from the culture media. Previous biochemical studies have determined that the cholesterol compone...

We determined cholesteryl ester transfer activity in whole plasma and in lipoprotein-depleted plasma of normolipidemic subjects and of patients with severe high-density lipoprotein (HDL) deficiency: Tangier disease, lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) deficiency, and "fish-eye" disease. Transfer rates in plasma were positively correlated (r = 0.950) with rates measured in the absence of...

The ability to quantify cholesterol and/or cholesteryl ester deposits in vivo noninvasively, a goal not yet achieved, could greatly facilitate new discoveries in atherosclerosis progression and regression. In this issue of iJACC, Duivenvoorden et al. (1) report progress in a H-magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopic technique that samples an approximate 5-mm cubic voxel in the region of the carot...

Thromboatherosclerotic and fibrous lesions were produced by endothelial damage with polyethylene catheters inserted into the aortas in rabbits on a normal diet. Two weeks after insertion of the catheters, the concentration of both free cholesterol and cholesteryl ester in the thromboatherosclerotic lesions was significantly greater than that in the adjacent normal intima. A further increase in ...

The net transfer of core lipids between lipoproteins is facilitated by cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP). We have recently documented CETP deficiency in a family with hyperalphalipoproteinemia, due to a CETP gene splicing defect. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the plasma lipoproteins within the low density lipoprotein (LDL) density range and also the cholesteryl es...

acyl-CoA and cholesterol. This enzyme plays key roles in both intestinal absorption of cholesterolX) and cholesteryl ester accumulation in macrophagederived foam cells, which are prominent in atherosclerotic plaques2). In the course of the search for microbial metabolites which inhibit cholesteryl ester formation in macrophages, helminthosporol (1)3), helminthosporal-derived acid (2)4) and helm...