Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Dec 26, 2016; 8(12): 689-694
Published online Dec 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i12.689
Interaction of hyperlipidemia and reactive oxygen species: Insights from the lipid-raft platform
Eisuke Amiya
Eisuke Amiya, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Author contributions: Amiya E solely contributed to this paper.
Supported by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan through grant-in-aid 26461103 (to Amiya E).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Eisuke Amiya, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. amiyae-tky@umin.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-33-8155411
Received: July 21, 2016
Peer-review started: July 26, 2016
First decision: September 6, 2016
Revised: September 7, 2016
Accepted: October 5, 2016
Article in press: October 9, 2016
Published online: December 26, 2016
Processing time: 151 Days and 12.5 Hours
Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress are closely associated with the development of atherosclerosis, and the most important regulator of ROS production in endothelial cells is NADPH oxidase. Activation of NADPH oxidase requires the assembly of multiple subunits into lipid rafts, which include specific lipid components, including free cholesterol and specific proteins. Disorders of lipid metabolism such as hyperlipidemia affect the cellular lipid components included in rafts, resulting in modification of cellular reactions that produce ROS. In the similar manner, several pathways associating ROS production are affected by the presence of lipid disorder through raft compartments. In this manuscript, we review the pathophysiological implications of hyperlipidemia and lipid rafts in the production of ROS.

Keywords: Lipid raft; Hyperlipidemia; Free cholesterol; Reactive oxygen species; NADPH oxidase

Core tip: Lipid raft is a membrane microdomain in which specific combinations of lipid components such as free cholesterol and proteins function to mediate and amplify a variety of cellular signals. The platform has a significant impact on the cellular reactions such as the production of reactive oxygen species, however, there are limited articles on the clinical relevance of this platform. Lipid disorder, such as hyperlipidemia, is one that significantly affects the platform, with the modification of associating cell functions in various ways. We focused on the effect derived from this platform in hyperlipidemia in this manuscript.