91影库

Speaker

Assistant professor, Medical College of Wisconsin Versiti Blood Research Institute

Ze Zheng is a junior associate editor of ASBMB’s Journal of Lipid Research. She started her research lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Versiti Blood Research Institute in July 2020 to study the roles of hepatocyte-derived fibrinolytic enzymes in lipoprotein metabolism in atherosclerosis and thrombosis. She is passionate about blood research because “blood flows through every organ in the body, and it is vital to all human diseases.”

The 91影库Breakthroughs webinar series offers a window into the cutting-edge biochemistry and molecular biology research driving discovery.

ApoB-lipoproteins initiate and promote atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Plasma tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, activity is negatively associated with atherogenic apoB-lipoprotein cholesterol levels in humans, but the mechanisms are unknown. We found that tPA binds to apoB, blocking the interaction between apoB and MTP in hepatocytes, thereby reducing VLDL assembly and plasma apoB-lipoprotein cholesterol levels. PAI-1 sequesters tPA away from apoB and increases VLDL assembly. These results suggest a mechanism that fine-tunes VLDL assembly by intracellular interactions among tPA, PAI-1, and apoB in hepatocytes.