Cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells is a rate-limiting step in reverse cholesterol transport. In this process cholesterol acceptors like high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and apolipoprotein (apo)A-I must cross the endothelium to get access to the donor cells in the arterial intima. Previously, we have shown that apoA-I passes a monolayer of aortic endothelial cells (ECs) from the apical...

Atherosclerosis and its complications are characterized by lipid-laden foam cell formation. Recently, an obvious up-regulation of BMP4 was observed in atherosclerotic plaque, however, its function and the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In our study, BMP4 pretreatment induced macrophage foam cell formation. Furthermore, a dramatic increase in the ratio of cholesteryl ester (CE) to total c...

The present study is to investigate whether inflammatory cytokines inhibit ABCA1/ABCG1-mediated cholesterol efflux by regulating miR-33a-5P in THP-1 macrophages. We used interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the presence or absence of native low density lipoprotein (LDL) to stimulate THP-1 macrophages. THP-1 macrophages were infected by either control lentivirus vectors or lentivirus...

Patients with pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) display impaired surfactant clearance, foamy, lipidfilled alveolar macrophages, and increased cholesterol metabolites within the lung. Neutralizing autoantibodies to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GMCSF) are also present, resulting in virtual GM-CSF deficiency. We investigated ABCG1 and ABCA1 expression in alveolar macrophage...

BACKGROUND Lipid accumulation has been shown to accelerate renal injury, and the intracellular accumulation of lipids may be caused by alterations in synthesis as well as lipid uptake and efflux. We have investigated the role of cellular cholesterol transport proteins including adenosine triphosphate binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), G1 (ABCG1) and scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-B...

Abstract Extracellular matrix protein-1 (ECM1) promotes tumorigenesis in multiple organs but the mechanisms associated to ECM1 isoform subtypes have yet be clarified. We report this study that secretory ECM1a induces through GPR motif binding integrin ?X?2 and activation of AKT/FAK/Rho/cytoskeleton signaling. The ATP cassette subfamily G member 1 (ABCG1) transduces ECM1a-integrin interactive si...

Purpose We investigated the association of the ATP-binding cassette, subfamily G, member 1 (ABCG1) gene with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in independent Chinese and Japanese cohorts. Methods A total of 12 haplotype-tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the SNP rs57137919 in the ABCG1 gene were first analyzed in a ...

Epigenetic regulation has been postulated to affect glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, we performed an epigenome-wide association study for measures of glucose metabolism in whole blood samples of the population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg F4 study using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 BeadChip. We identified a t...

It has been suggested that retinoic acid (RA) has a potential role in the prevention of atherosclerotic CVD. In the present study, we used J774A.1 cell lines and primary peritoneal macrophages to investigate the protective effects of RA on foam cell formation and atherogenesis in apoE-deficient (apoE- / -) mice. A total of twenty male apoE- / - mice (n 10 animals per group), aged 8 weeks, were ...