Workshop Report: Laboratory–Experimental Section

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge on optimal levels of blood lipids based on research in the laboratory, including work with human tissues, cells, and lipoproteins, and investigations using experimental animal models of atherosclerosis. It presents a summary of report of the laboratory–experimental section examined in the workshop. The workshop examined the experimental results on optimal plasma lipid and lipoprotein profile that are expected to favor prevention, retardation, and/or regression of clinically important atherosclerosis. It examined many of the nutritional variables that appear to influence the development of atherosclerosis, including the amount of food fat and the degree of saturation or randomization of fatty acids, the type and amount of dietary fiber, the presence of dietary saponins, the amount and source of dietary protein, the amount of lysine in the diet, and the type of dietary carbohydrate. All of these dietary factors seem to mediate their effects by affecting serum low-density lipoproteins (LDL) levels or the high-density lipoproteins (HDL)/LDL ratios.