Lipid homeostasis and the formation of macrophage-derived foam cells in atherosclerosis  

作　　者：Yuan Yuan Peng Li Jing Ye 

机构地区：[1]Department of Pathology,Xijing Hospital,Fourth Military Medical University,Xi'an 710032,China [2]Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences,School of Life Sciences,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China

出　　处：《Protein & Cell》2012年第3期173-181,共9页蛋白质与细胞（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.81070248,81070249,31171132,and 81100612).

摘　　要：Atherosclerosis is a chronic,inflammatory disorder characterized by the deposition of excess lipids in the arterial intima.The formation of macrophage-derived foam cells in a plaque is a hallmark of the development of atherosclerosis.Lipid homeostasis,especially cho-lesterol homeostasis,plays a crucial role during the formation of foam cells.Recently,lipid droplet-associated proteins,including PAT and CIDE family proteins,have been shown to control the development of athero-sclerosis by regulating the formation,growth,stabiliza-tion and functions of lipid droplets in macrophage-derived foam cells.This review focuses on the potential mechanisms of formation of macrophage-derived foam cells in atherosclerosis with particular emphasis on the role of lipid homeostasis and lipid droplet-associated proteins.Understanding the process of foam cell for-mation will aid in the future discovery of novel thera-peutic interventions for atherosclerosis.

关 键 词：MACROPHAGE foam cell ATHEROSCLEROSIS CHOLESTEROL lipid droplet-associated proteins 

分 类 号：R73[医药卫生—肿瘤]