METHOD OF SEARCHING FOR ARTERIOSCLEROSIS INHIBITORS AND SHRINKERS

摘要

It is intended to find an efficient method of searching for drugs affecting the cholesteryl ester cycle and establish a system of efficiently searching for defoaming agents or regression agents artherosclerotic lesion and a system of searching for therapeutic agents remedies for atherosclerosis with a mechanism different from publicly known ones. A method of evaluating effects of a test substance on intracellular cholesteryl ester metabolic regulation which comprises selectively extracting free cholesterol with an aqueous alcohol from cells having been incubated in the presence of the test substance and cells having been incubated in the absence of the test substance, and then comparing the cholesteryl ester content in the cells having been incubated in the presence of the test substance with the cholesteryl ester content in the cells having been incubated in the absence of the test substance; in particular, a method of screening a compound having an activity of regulating the intracellular cholesteryl ester metabolism; and defoaming promoters, antiatherogenic agents or agents for regression of atherosclerotic lesion containing as the active ingredient compounds screened by the above method.