The role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in atherothrombosis.

Despite considerable progress in the development of new therapies to control atherosclerosis and its complications, coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the number one cause of death in the Western world. While low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) has been associated with increased risk for CHD, raising HDL to reduce risk of disease has yet to be accepted as a standard therapeutic strategy. Currently available drugs that raise HDL (e.g., nicotinic acid, fibric acid derivatives, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists, and statins) also affect low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and other lipid constituents, making independent interpretation of their HDL-raising effect difficult to tease apart. Nevertheless, basic science studies suggest that HDL has multiple beneficial effects, and current efforts to develop new pharmacologic products with potent HDL-elevating effects may herald a day when HDL elevation becomes part of standard management of atherosclerotic diseases.