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 Vascular Health Programme - Lipid & Redox. Regulation Group

Lipid & Redox. Regulation Group

Research Goals

• To identify proteins in organs such as the liver that are controlled by dietary fat intake.

• To understand how reactions of these fats are modulated by dietary selenium and/or zinc through the activities of specific proteins.

• To apply the above knowledge in human volunteer trials to assess how fat and micronutrient intake may affect metabolism leading to coronary heart disease..

Britain and in particular Scotland, have some of the highest rates of atherosclerosis in the developed world. People in Scotland tend to develop atherosclerosis at younger ages than in many other European countries. Amongst the factors predisposing to this risk is poor diet; possibly accounting for up to 30% of the problem. Although dietary lipids have been implicated in both cause and prevention of the disease the exact roles of saturated and polyunsaturated fats in the diet remains unclear. Thus, how the n-3 fatty acids in fish oils may prevent coronary heart disease is still poorly understood. As with the other groups in the division, we are looking at ways whereby diet may prevent disease occurring rather than trying to predict ways of curing the problem. Thus our aim is to understand the mechanisms whereby certain dietary lipids in the presence of optimal amounts of selenium or zinc dependent proteins can influence processes like lipoprotein metabolism, inflammation and endothelial function that underlie the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease. This work relies on understanding not only the whole body metabolism of fatty acids but also the direct effects of fatty acids and their metabolites on endothelial cells. We aim to provide data for end-users who are formulating dietary recommendations for lipids and micronutrient intakes. In addition, understanding how these nutrients are involved in the mechanisms leading to coronary heart disease will be of importance to other researchers in this subject.

Areas of Research within the Lipid & Redox. Regulation Group