In this Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology on “High Density Lipoproteins – from biological understanding to clinical exploitation” contributing authors (members of COST Action BM0904/HDLnet) summarize in more than 20 chapters our current knowledge on the structure, function, metabolism and regulation of HDL in health and several diseases as well as the status of past and ongoing attempts of therapeutic exploitation. The book is of interest to researchers in academia and industry focusing on lipoprotein metabolism, cardiovascular diseases and immunology as well as clinical pharmacologists, cardiologists, diabetologists, nephrologists and other clinicians interested in metabolic or inflammatory diseases.
This volume provides state-of-the-art techniques for studying various aspects of cholesterol homeostasis, including its uptake, synthesis and efflux from the cell, as well as its trafficking within the cell. Chapters also cover techniques for studying the regulation of cholesterol homeostasis at both the transcriptional and post-translational levels, as well as studying the membrane topology and structure of cholesterol-related proteins. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Cholesterol Homeostasis: Methods and Protocols aims to provide key techniques in tackling the investigation of cholesterol homeostasis.
""What is this cholesterol?"" In this book entitled ""Cholesterol- Good, Bad, and the Heart"" now you got the answers given by the experts in the field. Moreover, you can explore more by reading the references/citations given in the articles of each chapter. It is still an emerging field and lot more is being discovered. You will be amazed how much knowledge is already there in this book on cholesterol. You will realize that cholesterol is an essential and extremely important building block of cell membranes and thus serves vital functions in the body. I believe this book will be incredibly powerful and useful in teaching to give new perspectives on cholesterol.
The Molecular Nutrition of Fats presents the nutritional and molecular aspects of fats by assessing their dietary components, their structural and metabolic effects on the cell, and their role in health and disease. Subject areas include molecular mechanisms, membranes, polymorphisms, SNPs, genomic wide analysis, genotypes, gene expression, genetic modifications and other aspects. The book is divided into three sections, providing information on the general and introductory aspects, the molecular biology of the cell, and the genetic machinery and its function. Topics discussed include lipid-related molecules, dietary lipids and lipid metabolism, high fat diets, choline, cholesterol, membranes, trans-and saturated fatty acids, and lipid rafts. Other sections provide comprehensive discussions on G protein-coupled receptors, micro RNA, transcriptomics, transcriptional factors, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, beta-oxidation, cholesteryl ester transfer, beta-oxidation, lysosomes, lipid droplets, insulin mTOR signaling and ligands, and more. - Summarizes molecular nutrition in health as related to fats - Discusses the impact of fats on cancer, heart disease, dementia, and respiratory and intestinal disease - Includes preclinical, clinical and population studies - Covers the genome, the whole body and whole communities - Includes key facts, a mini dictionary of terms and summary points
With the invitation to edit this volume, I wanted to take the opportunity to assemble reviews on different aspects of circadian clocks and rhythms. Although most c- tributions in this volume focus on mammalian circadian clocks, the historical int- duction and comparative clocks section illustrate the importance of various other organisms in deciphering the mechanisms and principles of circadian biology. Circadian rhythms have been studied for centuries, but only recently, a mole- lar understanding of this process has emerged. This has taken research on circadian clocks from mystic phenomenology to a mechanistic level; chains of molecular events can describe phenomena with remarkable accuracy. Nevertheless, current models of the functioning of circadian clocks are still rudimentary. This is not due to the faultiness of discovered mechanisms, but due to the lack of undiscovered processes involved in contributing to circadian rhythmicity. We know for example, that the general circadian mechanism is not regulated equally in all tissues of m- mals. Hence, a lot still needs to be discovered to get a full understanding of cir- dian rhythms at the systems level. In this respect, technology has advanced at high speed in the last years and provided us with data illustrating the sheer complexity of regulation of physiological processes in organisms. To handle this information, computer aided integration of the results is of utmost importance in order to d- cover novel concepts that ultimately need to be tested experimentally.
Biochemistry of Lipids: Lipoproteins and Membranes, Volume Six, contains concise chapters that cover a wide spectrum of topics in the field of lipid biochemistry and cell biology. It provides an important bridge between broad-based biochemistry textbooks and more technical research publications, offering cohesive, foundational information. It is a valuable tool for advanced graduate students and researchers who are interested in exploring lipid biology in more detail, and includes overviews of lipid biology in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, while also providing fundamental background on the subsequent descriptions of fatty acid synthesis, desaturation and elongation, and the pathways that lead the synthesis of complex phospholipids, sphingolipids, and their structural variants. Also covered are sections on how bioactive lipids are involved in cell signaling with an emphasis on disease implications and pathological consequences. - Serves as a general reference book for scientists studying lipids, lipoproteins and membranes and as an advanced and up-to-date textbook for teachers and students who are familiar with the basic concepts of lipid biochemistry - References from current literature will be included in each chapter to facilitate more in-depth study - Key concepts are supported by figures and models to improve reader understanding - Chapters provide historical perspective and current analysis of each topic
INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE FOR INTRACELLULAR CHOLESTEROL TRAFFICKING This volume is an elaboration of an earlier small meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri. In April 1997, many of the authors met for a two-day meeting devoted entirely to intracellular cholesterol trafficking. The rationale for this meeting was that investigators interested in this topic worked in a variety of fields, and rarely, if ever, all met together. Everybody knew each other's papers but mostly worked in isolation from one another. Understanding of cholesterol trafficking also appeared to have reached the point where it would start to rapidly expand beyond these few laboratories. Understanding of cholesterol trafficking was moving from a largely descriptive science into the molecular age. It seemed a good time to get together and see how much we agreed upon up to this point. More authors contributed to this volume than attended the St. Louis meeting. That meeting was generously funded by grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and Company and Parke-Davis, however, the total funding available limited the size of the meeting. For the book, we are not so limited and have tried to be as inclusive as possible and pretty much invited everyone who is presently active in this area. We were quite fortunate to successfully recruit the authors we sought for each of these chapters. The authors and their contributions can be organized by particular interests and particular areas of expertise.
The skin, the body’s largest organ, is strategically located at the interface with the external environment where it detects, integrates and responds to a diverse range of stressors, including solar radiation. It has already been established that the skin is an important peripheral neuroendocrine-immune organ that is closely networked with central regulatory systems. These capabilities contribute to the maintenance of peripheral homeostasis. Specifically, epidermal and dermal cells produce and respond to classical stress neurotransmitters, neuropeptides and hormones, production which is stimulated by ultraviolet radiation (UVR), biological factors (infectious and non-infectious) and other physical and chemical agents. Examples of local biologically active products are cytokines, biogenic amines (catecholamines, histamine, serotonin and N-acetyl-serotonin), melatonin, acetylocholine, neuropeptides including pituitary (proopiomelanocortin-derived ACTH, b-endorphin or MSH peptides, thyroid stimulating hormone) and hypothalamic (corticotropin-releasing factor and related urocortins, thyroid-releasing hormone) hormones, as well as enkephalins and dynorphins, thyroid hormones, steroids (glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, sex hormones, 7-δ steroids), secosteroids, opioids and endocannabinoids. The production of these molecules is hierarchical, organized along the algorithms of classical neuroendocrine axes such as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA), hypothalamic-thyroid axis (HPT), serotoninergic, melatoninergic, catecholaminergic, cholinergic, steroid/secosteroidogenic, opioid and endocannabinoid systems. Disruptions of these axes or of communication between them may lead to skin and/or systemic diseases. These local neuroendocrine networks also serve to limit the effect of noxious environmental agents to preserve local and consequently global homeostasis. Moreover, the skin-derived factors/systems can also activate cutaneous nerve endings to alert the brain to changes in the epidermal or dermal environments, or alternatively to activate other coordinating centers by direct (spinal cord) neurotransmission without brain involvement. Furthermore, rapid and reciprocal communications between epidermal and dermal and adnexal compartments are also mediated by neurotransmission including antidromic modes of conduction. Lastly, skin cells and the skin as an organ coordinate and/or regulate not only peripheral but also global homeostasis.
