Functional genomics of PPAR-gamma in human immunomodulatory cells.

Keeping in view the fact that peroxisome-proliferators activated receptors-PPARs (alpha,gamma) play a crucial role in atherogenic inflammation, the present study was addressed to explore as to how selective and specific PPAR-gamma gene silencing within human mononuclear cells affects genes involved in lipid metabolism and innate immune process. Such a study revealed that with respect to control cells, the PPAR-gamma knock-out cells exhibited significant reduction in the expression of genes coding for PPAR- alpha, CD-36, LDL-R as well as significant increase in the expression of genes coding for IL-4, IL-8, IFN-gamma, CX3CR1, hTERT. However, the expression of genes coding for LXR-alpha and Receptor-C( k ) could not be detected in PPAR-gamma knock-out cells. Based on these results, we propose that PPAR-gamma gene has the inherent capacity to influence the lipid mediated inflammation process in atherosclerotic lesions.