Transgenic Animals in Lipoprotein Research

Lipid metabolism is a complex system involving the interaction of several lipid-transporting and-transferring serum proteins, enzymes regulating lipoprotein synthesis and modification, and lipoprotein receptors. Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that many abnormalities in lipid metabolism are associated with coronary heart disease risk. There are at least 17 different genes that code for proteins directly involved in lipoprotein metabolism. Naturally occurring mutations in many of these genes have been described that affect either the quantity or the quality of these proteins. Such genetic alterations aid in the precise evaluation of the function of these gene products. Transgenic animal technology has made it possible to create genetic alterations and to study the consequences of overexpression of a gene and expression of a mutated protein, and also to study species-specific differences between proteins.