
Fat-Storing
Protein: A Diagnostic Tool for Heart Attack, Stroke Risk?By Rosalie Marion Bliss January 10, 2002A protein that helps body cells
store fat could help physicians assess whether patients whose blood vessels
contain fatty deposits called plaque are at risk for a heart attack or stroke.
Researchers found evidence that the protein--perilipin--was more actively
synthesized in ruptured plaque than in stable plaque. When plaque ruptures, it
triggers formation of a plug--an internal scab--that can stop blood
flow in the artery or reduce it to a trickle. If the ruptured plaque is in the
heart, it could cause a heart attack; if in the neck or head, a stroke could
ensue. Andrew S.
Greenberg, a research physician at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research
Center on Aging at Tufts University in
Boston, collaborated on the study with a group of researchers at the
University of Maastricht in
The Netherlands. The Boston center is funded by the
Agricultural Research Service,
USDAs chief scientific research
agency. The Dutch researchers, led by Mat J.A.P. Daemen, wanted to know if certain
genes are more active--that is, expressed as proteins--in ruptured plaque. They
sought collaboration with Greenberg, an expert in perilipin. The researchers
cloned genes from ruptured and nonruptured plaque and looked for differences in
expression among the genes. According to Greenberg, there was good evidence that the perilipin gene was
turned on and expressing the protein in the ruptured plaques, whereas it was
difficult to detect any expression in stable plaques. The findings were
published in Circulation
Research last September. Greenberg foresees several applications of the teams finding. First, a
test for the presence and amount of perilipin could be developed to detect
plaque in danger of rupture. For instance, a perilipin antibody, which would
attach to the protein, could be tagged with a radioactive tracer and
seen with imaging technology. Such a test could be used to monitor
the effectiveness of nutritional interventions, such as folate or antioxidants,
on risk for heart attack or stroke. Moreover, the discovery will help researchers better understand how plaques
become unstable, and it could lead to preventative measures. Story contacts Rosalie Bliss U.S. Department of Agriculture |