Biochemistry Review Q's Flashcards
1-32 = artherosclerosis 33-64= energy utilization
What are four things plaques are made up of?
cholesterol
lipids
inflammatory cells
Ca deposits
What occurs if the femoral artery gets occluded due to atherosclerosis?
intermittent claudication (condition in which cramping pain in the leg is induced by exercise)
What occurs if the internal carotid artery gets occluded due to atherosclerosis?
ischemia and cerebral infarction
What is the predominant cell in early atherosclerotic lesions?
macrophages
Where dos lipid accumulate in the arteries?
tunica intima
What are foam cells? Where can they be found?
Foam cells are a type of macrophage that localize to fatty deposits on blood vessel walls, where they ingest low-density lipoproteins and become laden with lipids, giving them a foamy appearance.
Where are smooth muscle cells located in the blood vessels?
in the tunica media
What occurs to the smooth muscle cells (SMC) of blood vessels during atherosclerosis?
foam cells release cytokines and growth factors that induce the SMCs to move to the tunica intima (they’re also changed to a repair phenotype instead of a contractile phenotype)
early atherosclerotic lesions are also called
fatty streaks/fatty dots (the first grossly visible lesion in the development of atherosclerosis)
Which lipoprotein reduces risk of atherosclerosis? Why?
LDL or HDL
HDL; it moves the lipids from the body back to the liver, this is why its called the good cholesterol.
LDL moves lipids to the body
What are the two ways cholesterol inflex is regulated?
too much free cholesterol inhibits the main cholesterol synthesis enzyme (HMG-CoA reductase) and it can also inhibit the DNA transcription of LDL receptors
What occurs to the cell if ACAT enzyme is defective?
the cell would get damaged. The ACAT enzyme acts to esterify and store free cholesterol, without it the free cholesterol would build up and cause damage to the cell (its toxic)
What are the receptors that uptake cholesterol via regulated versus unregulated pathway?
regulated= LDL receptors (they uptake native LDL)
unregulated= SR-A, CD36, oxLDL receptor (they uptake modified LDL’s!!)
What are the three uses for free cholesterol in the cell?
make steroids
make cell membrane
esterify and store it
Which of the following is a full transporter?
a. ABCA1: ATP-Binding Cassest Transporter A1
b. ABCG1: ATP-Binding Cassest Transporter G1
a. ABCA1: ATP-Binding Cassest Transporter A1
(ABCA1 gives both phospholipids and cholesterol esters to form the small HDL; ABCG1 only gives cholesterol esters to make the HDL bigger)
Where/Which receptor do the full HDL lipoproteins bind to?
the SR-B1 receptor in the liver
(it takes the lipids from the fat HDL and returns it to the circulation as a skinny legend)
How do modified LDL’s lead to inflammation?
by binding to toll like receptors (those activate inflammation)
(these modified/oxidized LDL’s get consumed by the macrophages by the unregulated scavenger receptors, but they also bind to the toll-like receptors on these macrophages and activate inflammation)
How does adaptive immunity play a role in atherosclerosis? explain.
dendritic cells (antigen-presenting) uptake the oxidized LDL, go to lymph, and present them to naive T cells. The naive T cells differentiate and go to the plaque to kill the oxidized LDL- this causes inflammation
What can be used biomarkers in coronary vascular disease?
inflammatory mediators
(use to diagnose)
What are the two hypotheses that explain how atherosclerosis develops?
1- response to injury (injury to endothelium caused the lipoproteins to go into the vessel wall and oxidize)
2- lipid retention (hyperlipidemia causes a the lipoproteins to go into the vessel wall and bind to matrix protein, aggregating and oxidizing) (…but why does it go into the vessel wall? because it’s going from the high lipid concentration in the blood to low lipid concentration on the vessel wall)
T/F: once the atherosclerotic plaque ruptures, occlusion is imminent
false, it doesn’t have to cause an occlusion, it can heal and cause stenosis instead
What can reduce the size of plaques?
efferocytosis (when dying cells are removed by phagocytic cells) or when cells migrate out of the plaque
Explain how plaques initiate
LDL accumulates in tunica intima and they get oxidized
oxidized LDL makes endothelial cells make adhesion receptors (ICAM, VCAM)
adhesion receptors attract monocytes and transform them into macrophages
macrophages express the scavenger receptors to uptake the oxidized LDL and transform to foam cells
What are four harmful effects of oxidized LDL?
- proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells
- inducing endothelial cells to make adhesion molecules
- inducing MCP-1 (macrophage chemotactic factor protein-1) so monocytes get attracted to the site
- increase MCSF (macrophage colony-stimulating factor) so monocytes can differentiate into macrophages
Which cells mainly aid in producing the fibrous cap? how?
vascular smooth muscle cells; they are the ones that migrate into the tunica intima and produce extracellular matrix, collagen, elastin, etc. This forms the fibrous cap while the inner portion is filled with foam cells/macrophages.