ABC transporters in cellular lipid trafficking

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters constitute a group of evolutionary highly conserved cellular transmembrane transport proteins. Recent work has implicated ABC transporters in cellular transmembrane lipid transport and hereditary diseases have been causatively linked to defective ABC transport ers translocating lipid compounds. The emerging concept that a defined subs et of ABC transporters is intimately involved in cellular lipid trafficking has recently been substantiated convincingly by the finding that ABCA1 pla ys a central role in the regulation of HDL metabolism and macrophage target ing to the RES or the vascular wall. Differentiation dependent expression o f a large number of ABC transporters in monocytes/macrophages and their reg ulation by sterol flux render these transporter molecules potentially criti cal players in atherogenesis and other chronic inflammatory diseases, Curr Opin Lipidol 11:493-501. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.