Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α and atherosclerosis

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α(PPARα) is one member of a nuclear hormone receptor superfamily of ligand activated transcription factors.PPARα is important not only in lipid and glucose metabolism but also in vascular biology and inflammatory reaction.PPARα has the ability of modulating inflammatory cytokines,modulating adhesion molecule expression and inhibiting Macrophage activation,it also has the ability of promoting reverse cholesterol transport, inhibiting vascular smooth muscle cells proliferation,and so on.All of these functions alone or combined engender the anti-atherosclerosis effects.While some other experiments got contrary conclusions.In this paper,we summarize the relationship between PPARα and atherosclerosis and its recent advance.