title: Cholesterol homeostasis in cardiovascular disease and recent advances in measuring cholesterol signatures.
abstract: Despite the biochemical importance of cholesterol, its abnormal metabolism has serious cellular consequences that lead to endocrine disorders such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nevertheless, the impact of blood cholesterol as a CVD risk factor is still debated, and treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs remains controversial, particularly in older patients. Although, the prevalence of CVD increases with age, the underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon are not well understood, and metabolic changes have not been confirmed as predisposing factors of atherogenesis. The quantification of circulating biomarkers for cholesterol homeostasis is therefore warranted, and reference values for cholesterol absorption and synthesis should be determined in order to establish CVD risk factors. The traditional lipid profile is often derived rather than directly measured and lacks a universal standard to interpret the results. In contrast, mass spectrometry-based cholesterol profiling can accurately measure free cholesterol as a biologically active component. This approach allows to detect alterations in various metabolic pathways that control cholesterol homeostasis, by quantitative analysis of cholesterol and its precursors/metabolites as well as dietary sterols. An overview of the mechanism of cholesterol homeostasis under different physiological conditions may help to identify predictive biomarkers of concomitant atherosclerosis and conventional CVD risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Center, Korea University Guro Hospital, Seoul 152-703, South Korea; Korea University-Korea Institute of Science and Technology Graduated School of Converging Science and Technology, Seoul 152-703, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hong Seog
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Materials and Life Science Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, South Korea. Electronic address: mh_choi@kist.re.kr.
authors.forename: Man Ho
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol
keywords: Atherogenesis; Cardiovascular disease; Cholesterol; Homeostasis; Mass spectrometry