Oxidized phosphatidylcholines: pattern recognition ligands for multiple pathways of the innate immune response.

Abstract

One consequence of living in an aerobic environment is an inexorable oxidative modification of molecular targets in vivo. At the cellular level the effects of the oxidized lipid and lipoprotein by-products can include leukocyte recruitment, activation, and apoptosis. Accumulating at sites of inflammation, these oxidation products can have profound pathological consequences, such as in the case of developing arterial lesions (1–5). Formation of oxidized lipids and lipoproteins in inflammation has thus been linked to the advancement of atherosclerosis and other degenerative diseases of aging.