Apolipoprotein D in Lipid Metabolism and Its Functional Implication in Atherosclerosis and Aging

Perdomo, German; Dong, H. Henry

Increased oxidative stress is closely associated with inflammation, insulin resistance, diabetes and atherosclerosis. There is accumulating evidence that apoD plays an important role in oxidative stress. Do Carmo et al. [66] show in cultured NIH/3T3 fibroblasts that apoD expression is significantly induced in response to cellular stress, regardless of whether the stress condition is caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, H 2 O 2 treatment or UV-light irradiation. This effect seems to be mediated by the NF-kB pathway, as there are several conserved NF-kB binding sites in the apoD promoter [66] . Furthermore, Do Carmo et al. [67] show that apoD confers a neuroprotective effect in the brain of mice. Their studies demonstrate that mice over-expressing human apoD in neurons, as opposed to normal controls, are more resistant with a 3-fold higher survival rate in response to human coronavirus-induced acute encephalitis. Likewise, Ganfornina et al. [68] show that apoD overexpression in the brain protects mice from oxidative stress. This effect correlates with the ability of apoD to prevent lipid peroxidation in cells [68] .