BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

An ap(t) target

June 4, 2001 7:00 AM UTC

Although the link between certain metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, and inflammation-induced atherosclerosis is well established, the molecular links between the indications are less well understood. A publication in this month's Nature Medicine by researchers at Vanderbilt University and colleagues may help unravel the mystery, as they showed adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (aP2), previously thought only to be expressed in adipocyte cells, also is expressed in activated macrophages.

Researchers showed that in a mouse model of atherosclerosis, animals lacking the aP2 gene were protected from the disease, and aP2-deficient macrophages had a reduced ability to accumulate cholesterol esters. Also, mice expressing aP2 in adipocytes but not in macrophages were protected from atherosclerosis, leading the researchers to suggest that aP2 has distinct actions in each cell type...