ABSTRACT
Mononuclear cells were prepared from venous blood obtained from 20 patients with a newly diagnosed hypercholesterolemia and without clinical signs of vascular disease, and from 19 age and sex matched controls. Adhesiveness to plastic surface, phagocytic activity measured as ingestion of zymosan particles, and spontaneous motility of mononuclear cells from patients were significantly higher by 57%, 19% and 50%, respectively, when compared to controls. In controls chemotaxis induced by the chemotactic peptide FMLP was slightly higher than spontaneous motility measured in absence of FMLP, whereas in patients FMLP significantly inhibited cell motility by about 47%. With the exception of FMLP-induced chemotaxis the results indicate that mononuclear cells are hyperreactive in hypercholesterolemia.
Subject(s)
Hypercholesterolemia/blood , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/physiology , Adult , Cell Adhesion , Cell Movement , Chemotaxis, Leukocyte/drug effects , Female , Humans , Lipids/blood , Male , Middle Aged , N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine/pharmacology , PhagocytosisABSTRACT
Human hypercholesterolemic serum increases proliferation of human umbilical endothelial cells in vitro. This might be due to an increased content of low molecular weight growth factors, which are released by blood cells, mainly thrombocytes. Hypercholesterolemia could increase endothelial cell turnover and expression of dysfunctional cells which may support atherogenic processes.
