Objectives-Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk. Furthermore, ethnicity and gender-specific normative data are required to assess cIMT, which are not available for Andean-Hispanics. In addition, data regarding correlates of subclinical atherosclerosis in ethnic population are needed.Methods-We studied 1448 adults enrolled in a population-based study in Peru. cIMT and carotid plaque were measured with high-resolution ultrasonography. A healthy reference sample (n=472) with no cardiovascular disease, normal weight and normal metabolic parameters was selected to establish normative cIMT values. Correlates of abnormal cIMT and carotid plaque were assessed in the entire population.Results-In the reference sample, 95 th -percentile cIMT values were both age and genderdependent. In stepwise regression, selected predictors of increasing cIMT were: older age, impaired fasting glucose, diabetes mellitus, higher systolic blood pressure, higher LDL-cholesterol, smoking and male gender. Predictors of carotid plaque included older age, male gender, higher systolic blood pressure, lower diastolic blood pressure and higher LDL-cholesterol. HDL-cholesterol and Creactive protein were not associated with cIMT or carotid plaque. The lack of association with HDLcholesterol was confirmed using high performance liquid chromatography.© 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Address for correspondence: Josefina Medina-Lezama, MD., Av. Cayma 401. Arequipa-Perú, Phone: +51-54-251518, Fax: +51-54-220838, jmedina@ucsm.edu.pe. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Conflict of interest statementJunichiro Takahashi and Gen Toshima are employees of Skylight Biotech (Tokyo, Japan) which provide commercially available services for HPLC measurements of serum lipoproteins. The other authors have no conflicts of interest. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAtherosclerosis. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 1. Conclusions-We present ethnic-specific cutoffs for abnormal cIMT applicable to AndeanHispanics and correlates of subclinical atherosclerosis in this population. Pending longitudinal studies, our data supports several risk associations seen in other populations and can be used to identify Andean-Hispanics at increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The lack of association between HDL-C and cIMT or carotid plaque in this population requires further investigation.

We analyzed the enzymatic properties of duck egg-white lysozyme II (DEL), which differs from hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL) in nineteen amino acid substitutions. A substrate binding study showed that DEL binds to the substrate analog at subsites A-C in the same manner as HEL. However, the experimental time-courses of DEL against the substrate N-acetylglucosamine pentamer, (GlcNAc)(5), revealed remarkably enhanced production of (GlcNAc)(2) and reduced production of (GlcNAc)(1) as compared to in the case of HEL. Computer simulation of the DEL-catalyzed reaction suggested that the amino acid substitutions at subsites E and F (Phe34 to Tyr and Asn37 to Ser) caused the great alteration in the time-courses of DEL. Subsequently, the enzymatic reactions of mutants, in which Phe34 and Asn37 in HEL were converted to Tyr and Ser, respectively, were characterized. The time-courses of the F34Y mutant exhibited profiles similar to those of HEL. In contrast, the characteristics of the N37S mutant were different from those of HEL and rather similar to those of DEL; the order of the amounts of (GlcNAc)(1) and (GlcNAc)(2) was reversed in comparison with in the case of HEL. Enhanced production of (GlcNAc)(2) was also observed for the mutant protein, F34Y/N37S, with two substitutions. These results indicated that the substitution of Asn37 with Ser can account, at least in part, for the characteristic time-courses of DEL. Moreover, replacement of Asn37 with Ser reduced the rate constant of transglycosylation. The substitution of the Asn37 residue may affect the transglycosylation activity of HEL.

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We isolated a HepG2-derived sub-clone (HepG2-Lipo), which possessed an increased lipoprotein synthesizing ability. HepG2-Lipo cells could secrete triglycerides (TG) and cholesterol at rates 9.4- and 6-fold higher, respectively, when compared to HepG2 cells. Real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression levels of sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c and -2 were 2.9- and 1.5-fold higher than in HepG2 cells. Furthermore, two apolipoprotein (apo) genes (apoA-1 and apoB-100) in HepG2-Lipo cells were expressed at 2.8- and 1.9-fold higher levels when compared to those in parental cells. We examined the effects of three antihyperlipidemic agents on the lipoprotein profiles of HepG2-Lipo cells. Simvastatin at 5 microM selectively suppressed cholesterol secretion from HepG2-Lipo cells, and 500 microM fenofibrate inhibited both TG and cholesterol secretion from the cells.

Four-hour fCh levels obtained by an OCTT reflect a NASH specific disorder of choline metabolism, suggesting that the OCTT is a novel and useful noninvasive method for diagnosing NASH at an early stage with sufficient accuracy for clinical practice.