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Cholesterol and Heart Disease: Novel Study Makes Definitive Link
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by ScienceDave | September 18, 2007 at 07:58 am
918 views | 12 Recommendations | 2 comments
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Baby boomers and cheeseburger lovers - St Louis scientists have determined the biochemical role cholesterol plays in athersclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Their results, published in the advanced online issue of Journal of Cell Science, outlines how cholesterol and so-called TGF-beta interact to produce a thick plaque along your arteries.
What is cholesterol needed by your body anyways? Well, imagine a single cell of your body - now picture it as a castle. There is an outer wall, with protective measures, doors, windows, a drawbridge, etc.
Cholesterol, like almost all lipids (fats) is incorporated in the outer wall of the castle. However, unlike other lipids which make the bricks, cholesterol is is a sticky mat - one that attracts human messengers both inside and outside of the castle.
What does this all mean? Well, the more cholesterol in a cell, the more the cell sequesters certain biochemical machinery - the sticky matt with messengers attached to it. This can be both good and bad - cholesterol allows certain messengers to interact more efficiently between the outside and inside of the castle. However, it can also prevent some messengers from doing their job - if there are to many sticky matts.
That is just what the St. Louis scientists have determined. TGF-beta, or transforming growth factor beta, is a cytokine. Cytokines are the equivalent to the human messengers stuck to the sticky matt - they transmit messages between individual cells. TGF-beta performs a number of interesting tasks, including helping the heart repair arterial damage and tumor suppression.
What does this have to do with cheeseburglared arteries? According to the study's author, "Because of its anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and fibrogenic activities, TGF-beta is hypothesized to be a protective cytokine in blood for atherosclerosis."
i.e. TGF-beta is to the Ghostbusters as cholesterol is to giant marshmellow men.
"We believe these findings represent a significant and novel breakthrough in cardiovascular research," said Jung San Huang, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and the study's lead researcher."This study gives us new insight into how cholesterol promotes atherosclerosis - and in turn, how it leads to heart attack and stroke," Dr. Huang added. "This could give us important new tools in the fight against heart disease."
In addition, the findings also suggest answers to questions about
other diseases associated with high blood cholesterol levels, including
cancer. For example, why are patients with high cholesterol also prone
to develop cancer? And why does drug therapy to lower blood cholesterol
correlate with a lower incidence of some cancers, as has been
previously reported?TGF-beta, it turns out, is a well-known
tumor suppressor, and loss of TGF-beta's protective effects - caused by
high blood cholesterol - could thus increase formation of these
cancers, the findings suggest.
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ScienceDave
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 09:48 on September 18th, 2007
Very, very well-explained. I will now treat bacon cheeseburgers not with fear, but with a healthy respect.
(Wouldn't it be cholesterol:TGF-beta::Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man: Ghostbusters?)
at 19:49 on September 18th, 2007
ScienceDave, good stuff but ewwwwww. So this means that when we have too much of the sticky stuff, it's like our insides become dirty door mats picking up all kinds of things? Ewwwwww. I don't think I will awnt a bacon cheeseburger again very soon at all. Good job of making something complicated very understandable!