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Article: Lipids are vital to life, but are important contributors to pathology.(A clinical approach to dyslipidaemia)(Report)
- Article from:
- CME: Your SA Journal of CPD
- Article date:
- March 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 South African Medical Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Life as we currently know it could not exist without lipids. For example, the much-maligned cholesterol molecule plays critical roles in membrane organisation, signal transduction, bile acid and steroid hormone synthesis--and these are just a few of its many roles. The critical importance of cholesterol is underscored by the large number of genes that regulate its metabolism and the devastating clinical consequences of the (luckily) very rare disorders in which 'abnormal' sterol molecules accumulate or cholesterol synthesis is disrupted. Yet excessive circulating cholesterol is an important contributor to atherosclerosis, which is the leading cause of death in the ...