Nicotine induces proinflammatory responses in macrophages and the aorta leading to acceleration of atherosclerosis in low-density lipoprotein receptor(-/-) mice.

Objective: We investigated the molecular mechanism of nicotine-accelerated atherosclerosis in a hyperlipidemic low-density lipoprotein receptor(-/-) mouse model.

Methods And Results: Low-density lipoprotein receptor(-/-) mice received time-release nicotine or placebo pellets for 90 days. Aortic lesion size was 2.

Involvement of a chaperone regulator, Bcl2-associated athanogene-4, in apolipoprotein B mRNA editing.

Apobec-1 is the catalytic subunit of a multicomponent editosome complex that mediates apolipoprotein B (apoB) mRNA editing. We isolated a novel apobec-1-interacting protein by yeast two-hybrid cloning and identified the protein as BAG-4. BAG-4, a chaperone-regulating protein, also known as SODD (silencer of death domains), is a member of the BAG family of proteins.