Publications by authors named "Lucia N Castilho"

Objectives: Experimental and in vitro evidences have established that reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by vascular wall cells play a key role in atherogenesis. Here, we evaluated the rate of ROS generation by resting peripheral monocytes in naive hyperlipidemic subjects.

Design And Methods: Primary hypercholesterolemic, combined hyperlipidemic, and normolipidemic individuals were studied.

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This study evaluated the serum concentrations of lipids, lipoproteins, apolipoproteins, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions in Brazilian adults. We analyzed the distribution of lipids in HDL2 and HDL3 in a normolipidemic population without evidence of established cardiovascular disease (CVD). A total of 93 males and 92 females, healthy and normolipidemic, volunteered to be submitted to a clinical examination, a blood collection, and to answer a questionnaire aimed at determining signs and symptoms of atherosclerotic disease.

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Objective: To quantify in young adults the sex-dependent differences in lipemic responses to a fat meal, we measured the association of these responses with markers of atherosclerosis and determined their metabolic regulators.

Methods: Forty-nine normolipidemic volunteers, 25 women and 24 men, were matched according to age, body mass index, waist circumference, diet, physical activity, and apolipoprotein-E phenotyping. After receiving a standardized fat meal (40 g of fat/m2 of body surface area), serial blood samples were drawn for laboratory analysis.

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Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is very prevalent in Brazil. HIV therapy has been recently associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). Dyslipidemia is a major risk factor for CHD that is frequently described in HIV positive patients, but very few studies have been conducted in Brazilian patients evaluating their lipid profiles.

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Context: Plasma phospholipid transfer protein mediates the transfer of phospholipids from triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, very low density lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins to high density lipoproteins, a process that is also efficient between high density lipoprotein particles. It promotes a net movement of phospholipids, thereby generating small lipid-poor apolipoprotein AI that contains particles and subfractions that are good acceptors for cell cholesterol efflux.

Case Report: We measured the activity of plasma phospholipid transfer protein in two cholestatic patients, assuming that changes in activity would occur in serum that was positive for lipoprotein X.

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Apolipoprotein (apo) E and C-I are plasma apolipoproteins that have been implicated in the etiology of atherosclerosis and obesity, respectively. Both proteins are synthesized and secreted by macrophages, though pharmacological regulation of their production is poorly understood. The authors compared the effect of 2 HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, atorvastatin and cerivastatin, on the synthesis and secretion of apoE and apoC-I by THP-1 macrophages.

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