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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. May 26, 2015; 7(5): 277-286
Published online May 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i5.277
Mitochondrial function and regulation of macrophage sterol metabolism and inflammatory responses
Annette Graham, Anne-Marie Allen
Annette Graham, Anne-Marie Allen, Department of Life Sciences, School of Health and Life Sciences and the Institute for Applied Health Research (Diabetes Research Group), Glasgow Caledonian University, G4 0BA Glasgow, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Graham A and Allen AM conceived, drafted and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: An international patent application (PCT/GB2014/052585) has been filed on behalf of Glasgow Caledonian University, relating to cholesterol modulation. No other conflicting interests, commercial, personal, political, religious, intellectual or otherwise, exist relating to this manuscript.
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: Annette Graham, PhD, Department of Life Sciences, School of Health and Life Sciences and the Institute for Applied Health Research (Diabetes Research Group), Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, G4 0BA Glasgow, United Kingdom. ann.graham@gcu.ac.uk
Telephone: +44-141-3313722 Fax: +44-141-3313208
Received: October 13, 2014
Peer-review started: October 14, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: February 25, 2015
Accepted: March 16, 2015
Article in press: March 18, 2015
Published online: May 26, 2015
Processing time: 219 Days and 20.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Mitochondrial cholesterol trafficking to CYP27A1 located on the inner mitochondrial membrane regulates the formation of oxysterol ligands for liver X receptors (LXRs) in sterol-laden macrophage “foam” cells. In turn, ligation of LXRα has profound implications for sterol removal and inflammatory responses in macrophage “foam” cells, both factors which may contribute to the effective resolution of atherosclerotic lesions and reductions in the incidence of coronary heart disease and its sequelae.