Development of novel cell models for the evaluation of cholesterol efflux

Abstract

For evaluation of cholesterol efflux, we use a sensitive method for determination of intracellular cholesterol. As a cellular model, primary culture of subendothelial cells isolated by enzymatic digestion from the intima of the human aorta is used in our approach. In this study our in vitro cellular model has undergone testing and demonstrated its applicability. As agents for the testing a wide number of pharmacologic substances, including natural products with pharmacologic properties have been used. The results showed that the in vitro method is suitable for study of cholesterol efflux from cultured cells and this model can be successfully used for HDL therapy against cardiovascular disease. Our cellular model can be also used in ex vivo version when not pharmacological agents, but the serum of patients treated with different drugs is added to the cell culture. This model mim lcs very closely the situation which actually occurs in the body making easy to interpret the results obtained. Because the serum contains all the components that affect the cholesterol efflux, the data obtained in this ex vivo model can be considered as a reliable indicator of the influence of all possible effectors on cholesterol efflux.