Lipid Metabolism

Overview

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease and stroke, is the leading cause of death and disability in our society. Major CVD risk factors include increased age (> 45 in men, > 55 in women), male gender, high blood pressure (systolic pressure > 140 mm Hg), diabetes, smoking, elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (> 160 mg/dl), and decreased levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (< 40 mg/dl). Emerging CVD risk factors include elevated levels of triglycerides, C reactive protein (CRP), and lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a). Obesity predisposes to an increased prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated LDL cholesterol, and decreased HDL cholesterol. A sedentary lifestyle and diets rich in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, trans fats, and sugars predispose to obesity and elevated triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels.

A major goal of our research is to elucidate the nutritional, hormonal, and genetic factors which regulate plasma triglycerides, LDL, HDL, lipoprotein subfractions, Lp(a), glucose, insulin, CRP and other inflammatory markers. A second major goal of our research is to develop optimal lifestyle programs in the elderly in the free-living state to decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and dementia.

Capabilities

The Lipid Metabolism Laboratory is equipped with an Hitachi 711 analyzer, a Storm phosphoimager, two Beckman ultracentrifuges, a Perkin Elmer GC/MS, and an ABI 3100 genetic analyzer for sequencing and high throughput genotyping. Our laboratory has the capabilities to conduct high throughput standardized clinical chemistry analyses of cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, direct LDL cholesterol, small dense LDL cholesterol, apoA-I, apoA-II, apoB-100, apoB-48, apoE, and Lp(a), HDL subpopulation analysis by two-dimensional electrophoresis, high thoughput genotyping using the Taqman approach (in collaboration with the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory), genome wide scanning (in collaboration with the Broad Institute, MIT), plasma plant sterol analysis and fatty analysis (in collaboration with the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory), stable isotope apolipoprotein kinetic studies (in collaboration with the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and Dr. Hugh Barrett of the University of Western Australia, Perth for kinetic modeling). We also carry out tissue culture studies with human HepG2 cells to measure mRNA levels and to examine the nutritional and hormonal regulation of gene expression of genes affecting lipid metabolism.

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For more information about the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory, please visit the USDA, Agricultural Research Service.

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