[Effect of high density lipoprotein (HDL) on the clearance of intracellular lipids with special reference to the co-effect of nifedipine].

More than 90% of peritoneal macrophages collected from the diet-induced hyperlipidemic rabbits were noticed to be loaded with abundant lipids, and were morphologically similar to the foamy cells infiltrating in the atheromatous lesion. Data of this experiment showed that HDL could promote the clearance rate of intracellular cholesterol efflux and this effect could be strengthened in the progress of time that HDL could transport more than 30% of the accumulated lipids from the cultured cells in 96 hours. Data also indicated that nifedipine was able to promote the hydrolysis of cholesteryl esters in the cultured cells. Addition of nifedipine to the culture media originally containing only HDL promoted the ability of foamy cells in excreting intracellular cholesterol via a hitherto unknown mechanism. This study indicated that nifedipine enhanced the cholesterol efflux mediated by HDL.