The treatment of hyperlipidemia is aimed at preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). As the incidence of CHD in Japan is about one-third lower and that of stroke is two-fold higher compared to Western countries, and the doses of lipid-lowering drugs used in foreign randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) are much higher than in general use in Japan, it remains unclear whether the results of RCTs conducted in Western countries could be extrapolated to Japanese patients. Recently, two major large-scale, prospective, RCTs in Japanese hypercholesterolmic patients, the Management of Elevated Cholesterol in the Primary Prevention of Adult Japanese (MEGA) study and the Japan EPA Lipid Intervention Study (JELIS), have been reported. Japanese epidemiological studies and Japanese clinical studies are reviewed. The evidence suggests that hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and low HDL-cholesterol are strongly associated with increased CHD risk. Lipid-lowering medication shows beneficial effects even in low-risk populations; however, the data did not support that lower cholesterol is better. The safety and efficacy of hyperlipidemia treatment in Japanese patients are discussed.

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We previously found that oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) elevated the expression of mRNA of GalNAcβ1-4[NeuNAcα2-3]Galβ1-4Glc-Cer (GM2) ganglioside activator protein, in human monocyte-derived macrophages. Recently, GM2 activator protein has become known as a general glycosphingolipid transporter as well as a specific cofactor for the hydrolysis of GM2 ganglioside by lysosomal β-hexosaminidase A. Accumulation of glycosphingolipids has been observed in the serum or aorta of atherosclerotic model animals and humans. The proliferation of aortic smooth muscle cells, elevation of LDL uptake by macrophages, interfering LDL clearance by the liver, and enhancement of platelet adhesion to collagen have been proposed as the underlying mechanisms of glycosphingolipid-mediated atherogenesis. The GM2 activator protein can bind, solubilize and transport a broad spectrum of lipid molecules, indicating that GM2 activator protein may function as a general intra- and inter-cellular lipid transport protein. Collectively, elevated levels of GM2 activator protein in the aorta may be another feature of human atherosclerosis.

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The pathophysiological effects of the activation or inhibition of the nitric oxide (NO)-mediated pathway on the deformability of red blood cells (RBC) were evaluated in the presence of hypercholesterolemia induced in rabbits fed a cholesterol-rich diet. RBC deformability was assessed using a microchannel array flow analyzer system. The maximum passage time (MPT) by flowing a suspension of RBC through the microchannels was used as an index of RBC deformability. During cholesterol feeding for 12 weeks, MPT gradually increased with no significant elevation in the serum asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and arginine/ADMA ratio. The reduction in RBC deformability associated with hypercholesterolemia was significantly improved during incubation with each of three different NO pathway activators: a NO donor, 8-bromo-cyclic GMP, and arginine; however, no additional reduction was observed with ADMA administration. The inhibition of NO synthase due to ADMA caused a significant reduction in the deformability of normal RBC, which was reversed with NO pathway activation. These results suggest that impaired RBC deformability may be associated with a dysfunction in the NO pathway that is partially dependent upon the accumulation of ADMA in RBC, and exogenous NO pathway activators may improve the microcirculation by restoring RBC deformability in the presence of hypercholesterolemia.

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Although statins are prescribed as relatively safe and effective drugs for hypercholesterolemic patients, it has been reported that a significant side effect, myopathy, occurs infrequently during medication. Moreover, because statins decrease cardiac ubiquinone levels, the risk of cardiac dysfunction has been suggested. This study sought to evaluate and compare the cytotoxicity of statins (cerivastatin, pitavastatin, fluvastatin, simvastatin, atorvastatin and pravastatin) in cultured human skeletal muscle cells (HSkMCs) and the effects on ubiquinone levels in statin-treated rat skeletal muscle and heart. Cerivastatin, the most potent inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, showed the strongest cytotoxicity (over 10-fold) among the statins examined, while the effects of the others were in a similar range. In rat experiments, neither pitavastatin nor cerivastatin decreased ubiquinone levels in skeletal muscle, but both dose-dependently lowered ubiquinone levels in the heart. As the rates of reduction by pitavastatin (9.6% at 30 mg/kg) and cerivastatin (9.7% at 0.3 mg/kg) were almost equal, it was estimated that cerivastatin reduced ubiquinone levels in the rat heart approximately 100-fold more strongly than pitavastatin, based on the effective doses. We found that cerivastatin showed the most potent cytotoxicity in HSkMCs and strongly lowered ubiquinone levels in the rat heart.

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Background and Purpose: Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process, and anti-inflammatory agents potentially inhibit the development of atherosclerosis. We tested whether a novel NFκB inhibitor reduces atherosclerosis.
Methods: Dehydroxymethylepoxyquinomicin (10 mg/kg) or vehicle (chloromethyl cellulose) was injected intraperitoneally into apoE-deficient mice three times a week for 16 weeks. The entire aorta was excised and atherosclerotic area was determined at 4 and 16 weeks. Serum levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, TNF-α and adiponectin were also measured.
Results: The atherosclerotic area was significantly smaller in mice treated with dehydroxymethyl-epoxyquinomicin both at 4 and 16 weeks. There was no significant difference in body weight or serum levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, and adiponectin.
Conclusions: A new NFκB inhibitor, dehydroxymethylepoxyquinomicin, reduced atherosclerosis without affecting plasma lipid levels in apoE-deficient mice.

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Apolipoprotein (apo) J, clusterin, is ubiquitously expressed in many tissues, and is a component of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). There is experimental evidence that it may be anti-atherogenic through its effects on cholesterol transport, smooth muscle cell proliferation and lipid peroxidation. HDLs containing apo J and apo A-I carry paraoxonase (PON1), which protects low-density lipoproteins from oxidative modification; however, the extent to which apo J affects coronary heart disease (CHD) is not known. We have developed a sandwich ELISA that enables apo J to be assayed in the range of 13-200 µg/mL. Serum apo J was 52.8±0.8 µg/mL (mean±SEM; range, 36.0-84.3 µg/mL; n=92) in healthy Japanese men, and 49.3±0.5 µg/mL (34.5-72.8; n=241) in healthy Japanese women. Multiple regression of these data and results from 67 men with CHD showed that apo J concentration was unrelated to age, sex or body mass index, but was positively related to serum PON1 (p<0.001) and apo B (p<0.02) concentrations. In women, it was also positively related to blood glucose (p<0.02). After adjusting for its associations with covariates, serum apo J averaged 5.4 µg/mL, lower in CHD men than in controls (p<0.003). Type 2 diabetics had higher apo J concentrations (men, 83.1±3.4 µg/mL, n=64; women, 64.0±2.3 µg/mL, n=46) than healthy men and women (p<0.001). In these Type 2 diabetics, apo J concentration was unrelated to PON1 concentration, but was positively related to blood glucose (p<0.01). After adjustment for its relation to blood glucose, the mean apo J concentration was similar in diabetics and healthy subjects. These findings suggest that apo J may be anti-atherogenic in humans, and that its concentration is raised by Type 2 diabetes.

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We retrospectively evaluated the frequency and identified the factors associated with the development of aortic stenosis (AS) in 96 patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The frequency of AS was 31% (4/13) and that of critical stenosis was 15% (2/13) in older patients over the age of 70 years. All 4 patients with AS were female aged more than 70 years who were diagnosed with FH when aged more than 60 years. There were no significant differences in conventional coronary risk factors; however, the age at cardiac catheterization, age at diagnosis of FH and the cholesterol-years score (CYS) with AS were significantly higher than those without AS (p=0.006, p=0.017, p=0.021, respectively). In multiple regression analysis, CYS was a significant independent predictor for the development of AS (p=0.037) in 13 older patients over the age of 70 years. These results suggest that physicians should be aware that AS needs attention in older patients with heterozygous FH, especially women who have been diagnosed late in life and those who have been inadequately treated.

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In addition to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases by lowering plasma LDL cholesterol, recent studies suggest that statins could have some impact on insulin action. To estimate the direct effects of statins on insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells, MIN6 cells were treated with pravastatin, simvastatin, or atorvastatin. Basal insulin secretion at low glucose concentration was unexpectedly increased at very high doses of simvastatin or atorvastatin after 24- and 48-hour incubation. Insulin secretion at high glucose was not significantly changed, and thus, net glucose-stimulated insulin secretion was apparently decreased by these lipophilic statins. The changes in insulin secretion were highly associated with increased endogenous SREBP activities in response to HMG-CoA inhibition as estimated by SRE-luciferase assays, and finally after 48-hour incubation, accompanied by impaired cell viability as estimated by MTT assays. In contrast, these changes were much less prominent by the addition of pravastatin. Meanwhile, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion of islets isolated from C57BL/6 mice was not significantly changed by any of the statins. Overall, taken up by β-cells, statins can affect insulin secretion through either HMG-CoA inhibition or cytotoxicity, as observed by the addition of extraordinary high doses of lipophilic statins, but not hydrophilic statins, to the medium.

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