Human model for studying in vitro the regulating function of specific and scavenger LDL receptors.

Measurements of the specific and scavenger LDL receptor activities in different disorders do not reveal all the causes and origin of hypercholesterolaemia. Studying the failure of the intracellular regulation of these receptors can give us some new information about the background of atherosclerosis. Therefore, we have tried to develop an in vitro model which is suitable for studying the specific and scavenger LDL receptor activities and their most important regulating functions, i.e. the inhibition of HMG-Co-A reductase by native LDL and the apo E secretion induced by acLDL. MDMs cultured for three days have turned out to provide a good model to test these functions.