Hypertriglyceridemia is characterised by high levels of triglycerides in the blood and is associated with several metabolic disorders and with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It can be caused by several factors, including obesity, excessive alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet. In addition, individuals with genetic defects in apolipoprotein-CII (APOC2; an activator of lipoprotein lipase, which hydrolyses triglycerides to deliver fatty acids to body tissues) display hypertriglyceridemia even on a normal diet. Here, Yury Miller and colleagues generated mutant zebrafish bearing apoc2 loss-of-function mutations. These animals, fed a normal diet, exhibit severe hypertriglyceridemia and accumulate lipid and lipid-laden macrophages in the vasculature, which constitute early events in the development of human atherosclerotic lesions. Notably, injection of wild-type zebrafish plasma with functional Apoc2 or a human APOC2-mimetic peptide can rescue hypertriglyceridemia in the mutants. This is the first animal model of APOC2 deficiency that can be used to understand mechanisms of human hypertriglyceridemia and to screen small molecules with therapeutic potential. Page
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
August 2015
Virtual Meeting - Developmental Disorders: From Mechanism to Treatment
A collaboration between the Development and Disease Models & Mechanisms journal teams, this virtual Meeting will unite developmental biologists, human geneticists and clinical researchers to focus on building bridges from bench to clinic. Register your interest and find out more.
High-dose vitamin B1 therapy prevents the development of experimental fatty liver driven by overnutrition
Vitamin B1 is shown to prevent nutrition-induced fatty liver in our current Editor’s choice by Hay Davir and his colleagues, when they use sheep as a large-animal model for studying the disease.
Find out more in an interview with the paper's first authors, Mugagga Kalyesubula and Ramgopal Mopuri.
Upcoming grant deadlines
Call for papers - The RAS Pathway: Diseases, Therapeutics and Beyond
Our upcoming special issue is welcoming submissions until 3 May 2021. Guest-edited by Donita Brady (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Arvin Dar (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA), the issue will focus on targeting the RAS pathway.
Social media
