Date of Award

4-2020

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. James R. Springstead

Second Advisor

Dr. Qingliu Wu

Third Advisor

Dr. Andrew Kline

Keywords

Phospholipid, inflammation, atherosclerosis, chronic

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Atherosclerosis, the primary cause of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), has become one of the top causes of death in the world. As low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles become trapped and oxidized inside arterial walls, the primary oxidation products of 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphatidylcholine (PAPC) induce the binding of monocytes which can potentially lead to fatty plaque build ups. A fragment of one of these oxidation products, OxPAPC, has previously been studied and can act as standard for testing new phospholipids and how they affect protein expression levels. The central hypothesis of this study was that three newly studied classes of oxidized fatty acids exhibit distinct control patterns over specific genes involved in inflammation. The genes of interest are crucial at various points in the pathway: monocyte recruitment (MCP-1), inflammation (IL-8), and oxidative stress regulation (HO-1). Previous studies have shown that other molecules belonging to these classes of fatty acids are able to downregulate certain genes in the inflammation pathway for human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs), likely leading to decreased inflammation levels. The effects of these three groups of novel oxidized fatty acids known as isoprostanes, neuroprostanes, and neurofurans, were investigated and tested to see if there was potential for biological pathway control and identify effects of fatty acid structure on biological activity in HAECs. This research will assist in the development of future treatments for atherosclerosis and CHD.

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