(Press-News.org) High levels of "good" cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) are associated with a decreased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) — a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. This suggests that therapeutics that increase HDL levels could be clinically useful. However, such therapies have not yielded clear-cut decreases in disease, indicating that the beneficial effects of HDL are likely not related simply to its abundance. More evidence to support this notion has now been provided by a team of researchers, led by Ulf Landmesser, at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who found that HDL from patients with (CAD) had different effects on cells lining blood vessels than did HDL from healthy individuals. In particular, the HDL from patients with CAD was found to lack anti-inflammatory effects on blood vessel–lining cells and could not stimulate repair of the blood vessel lining. As noted by the team and, in an accompanying commentary, Philip Shaul and Chieko Mineo, at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, these data indicate that if the protective potential of HDL is to be harnessed, its biological functions as well as its abundance must be considered.
###
TITLE: Mechanisms underlying adverse effects of HDL on eNOS-activating pathways in patients with coronary artery disease
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Ulf Landmesser
University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Phone: 0041.44.255.9595; Fax: 0041.44.255.4251; E-mail: Ulf.Landmesser@usz.ch.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/42946?key=75b59fdbec4a2b72920d
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: PON-dering differences in HDL function in coronary artery disease
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Philip W. Shaul
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Phone: 214.648.2015; Fax: 214.648.2096; Email: Philip.shaul@utsouthwestern.edu.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/57671?key=80dc6616a66c3edf5371
'Good' cholesterol function as important as its levels
2011-06-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Dual Tracking: Homeowners Suffer Foreclosures While Banks Lose Little
2011-06-24
Although homeowners continue to struggle with their mortgage payments and try to avoid foreclosure, many banks see nothing wrong with concurrently pursuing foreclosures against borrowers who are seeking loan modifications. This controversial practice, called dual tracking, seems less like a smart business tactic and more like a way to punish homeowners working to keep their homes. While both federal regulators and various state officials work to curb or ban the practice of dual tracking, consumers should be aware that lenders may sell their homes before modifying their ...
Understanding the antiepileptic benefits of an Atkins-like diet
2011-06-24
Some individuals with epilepsy fail to respond to treatment with conventional drugs but benefit from consuming a ketogenic diet — a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet similar to the more commonly known Atkins diet. A team of researchers, led by Detlev Boison, at the Legacy Research Institute, Portland, has now identified in mice the molecular mechanism responsible for the antiepileptic effects of the ketogenic diet.
The team found that a ketogenic diet reduces seizures in mice by decreasing expression of the protein Adk, which is responsible for clearing the natural antiepileptic ...
JCI table of contents: June 23, 2011
2011-06-24
EDITOR'S PICK: What makes a happy meal?
Many people when stressed turn to high calorie "comfort foods". Despite the contribution this behavior makes to the current obesity epidemic, little is known about the molecules and nervous system circuits that control it. Insight into this could provide new targets for the development of therapeutics to curb this potentially detrimental behavior. In this context, a team of researchers, led by Jeffrey Zigman, at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, working with a new mouse model of prolonged psychosocial ...
When matter melts
2011-06-24
In its infancy, when the universe was a few millionths of a second old, the elemental constituents of matter moved freely in a hot, dense soup of quarks and gluons. As the universe expanded, this quark–gluon plasma quickly cooled, and protons and neutrons and other forms of normal matter "froze out": the quarks became bound together by the exchange of gluons, the carriers of the color force.
"The theory that describes the color force is called quantum chromodynamics, or QCD," says Nu Xu of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley ...
Effects of stress can be inherited, and here's how
2011-06-24
None of us are strangers to stress of various kinds. It turns out the effects of all those stresses can change the fate of future generation, influencing our very DNA without any change to the underlying sequence of As, Gs, Ts and Cs. Now, researchers reporting in the June 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, have new evidence that helps to explain just how these epigenetic changes really happen.
"There has been a big discussion about whether the stress effect can be transmitted to the next generation without DNA sequence change," said Shunsuke Ishii of RIKEN ...
How to Avoid Harm at the Doctor's Office After a Tampa Car Accident
2011-06-24
A doctor's office visit can be stressful, no matter what the circumstances, but imagine if you're visiting your doctor after you've been injured in a car accident.
If you've spoken with an attorney about your Florida motor vehicle accident, your attorney may have counseled you on how to protect your accident claim in the exam room. If you haven't spoken to an attorney, there are mistakes you want to avoid to prevent damaging any possible claim you have.
Mistakes to Avoid at a Visit With Your Doctor
Don't Lie About Your Pain or Ignore Pain: The most common, and ...
Leftover embryonic cells connect gastric reflux and cancer
2011-06-24
The ultimate source of some cancers is embryonic cells. Research published in the June 24th Cell, a Cell Press publication, traces the precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells found in all adults.
Some people with gastric reflux disease have a greater risk of developing esophageal cancer. These patients often have Barrett's esophagus, a condition in which intestinal-like cells appear in the esophagus. Esophageal cancers are difficult to treat and, together with gastric adenocarcinomas, kill more than a million people each year.
"A lot of ...
The flames of Betelgeuse
2011-06-24
Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is also one of the biggest, being almost the size of the orbit of Jupiter — about four and half times the diameter of the Earth's orbit. The VLT image shows the surrounding nebula, which is much bigger than the supergiant itself, stretching 60 billion kilometres away from the star's surface — about 400 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun.
Red supergiants like Betelgeuse represent one of the last stages in the life of a massive star. In this short-lived ...
Mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic inheritance uncovered in new study
2011-06-24
Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus. Published in the journal Cell, the results highlight the role of the transcription factor dATF-2 in chromatin assembly, marking a major advance in our understanding of non-Mendelian inheritance.
Recent years have seen growing interest in the phenomenon of epigenetic inheritance: the idea that our genome, through epigenetic ...
Senators Latest Target: Smartphone DUI Apps
2011-06-24
An app created by the Canadian based creators of Blackberry, Research In Motion, has recently been pulled off the company's online store after a formal request from four U.S. Senators.
Known as the "DUI app," it allows users to pinpoint the exact locations of local police checkpoints using GPS. The apps also locate traffic cameras and speed traps.
Web applications like these, however, are gaining widespread attention by law enforcement and legislative officials across the country.
Senators Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Charles Schumer, D-New York; Frank Lautenberg, ...