Word: ldl
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Whitehead Institute Symposium at M.I.T. last week, one keynote address was a rare display of virtuosity. Michael Brown of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas vividly described the twelve years of work that he and Colleague Joseph Goldstein had carried out on the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, a molecule that ferries cholesterol-rich particles from the bloodstream into the cell. His explanations were crisply organized, and his slides went beyond standard diagrams to include photographs of patients. Said one listener of Brown and Goldstein: "Their work is dazzling...
Their prize had been predicted for some time, and with good reason: the discovery of the LDL receptor has revolutionized scientists' knowledge of cholesterol metabolism and certain cardiovascular diseases. Says Goldstein: "We now understand the mechanism through which diet and exercise can help prevent a heart attack...
...rare inherited disorder. Children with the disease have blood-cholesterol levels six to ten times normal and can suffer heart attacks as early as age two. By comparing skin cells from victims with those of healthy people, the two scientists traced the problem to an absence or deficiency of LDL receptors, proteins that stud the outer membranes of most cells, particularly those of the liver. Then they decoded the complex minuet that takes place between the receptor and its LDL particle. Says Baltimore: "That was important for understanding how cells communicate with their environment...
...some cases, high cholesterol levels are caused by genetic defects. Molecular Geneticists Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Dallas, have discovered a tiny structure-a single molecule-that sits on the surface of cells and removes potentially harmful LDL cholesterol from circulation. About one in 500 Americans is genetically deficient in these structures, called LDL receptors, and, as a result, develops astronomically high levels of LDL cholesterol. People with this condition, called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), have 25 times the normal risk of heart disease...
When two bypass operations failed to help the ailing child, doctors decided on a radical, last-ditch effort to save her life: a liver transplant. The cells of the liver are specially equipped to remove harmful LDL cholesterol from the blood, but because of her genetic defect this mechanism was not working in Stormie's liver. The hope was that a new organ would cleanse LDL cholesterol from her blood and perhaps even reverse the buildup in her arteries. There was one hitch, however. Says Pediatric Surgeon Basil Zittelli of Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, where the transplant...