For more than two decades, there has been continuing evidence of lipid oxidation playing a central role in atherogenesis. The oxidation hypothesis of atherogenesis has evolved to focus on specific proinflammatory oxidized phospholipids that result from the oxidation of LDL phospholipids containing arachidonic acid and that are recognized by the innate immune system in animals and humans. These oxidized phospholipids are largely generated by potent oxidants produced by the lipoxygenase and myeloperoxidase pathways. The failure of antioxidant vitamins to influence clinical outcomes may have many explanations, including the inability of vitamin E to prevent the formation of these oxidized phospholipids and other lipid oxidation products of the myeloperoxidase pathway. Preliminary data suggest that the oxidation hypothesis of atherogenesis and the reverse cholesterol transport hypothesis of atherogenesis may have a common biological basis. The levels of specific oxidized lipids in plasma and lipoproteins, the levels of antibodies to these lipids, and the inflammatory/antiinflammatory properties of HDL may be useful markers of susceptibility to atherogenesis. Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and apoA-I mimetic peptides may both promote a reduction in oxidized lipids and enhance reverse cholesterol transport and therefore may have therapeutic potential. (1) reported that the oxidation of LDL was injurious to artery wall cells and suggested that LDL oxidation may be important in atherogenesis. They also demonstrated that HDL inhibited the LDL-induced cytotoxicity (1). Over the ensuing two decades, this group elucidated the basis for these observations and established the important role of oxidized cholesterol products, especially cholesterol hydroperoxides (2).
THE SEARCH FOR MECHANISMS OF LDL-INDUCEDFOAM CELL FORMATION Also in 1979, Goldstein et al. (3) reported that acetylated LDL but not native LDL was taken up by "scavenger receptors" instead of the LDL receptor, resulting in cholesteryl ester accumulation in macrophages characteristic of foam cells. Because acetylation was not known to occur, after the publication of this seminal paper there was a search for physiological ligands that would explain foam cell formation. Fogelman et al. (4) soon reported that malondialdehyde, an obligate product of the oxidation of arachidonic acid by the lipoxygenase pathways, could cause Schiff-base formation with the epsilon amino groups of apolipoprotein B (apoB) lysines in LDL. The altered lipoprotein was recognized by macrophage scavenger receptors, resulting in cholesteryl ester accumulation characteristic of foam cells. The next year, Steinberg and colleagues (5) demonstrated that cultured endothelial