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Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 970635, 10 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/970635
Lipid-Regulating Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Mechanisms of Actions
1Key Unit of Modulating Liver to Treat Hyperlipidemia of SATCM, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) Level 3 Lab of Lipid Metabolism, Guangdong TCM Key Laboratory for Metabolic Diseases, Institute of Chinese Medicinal Sciences, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou 510006, China
2Institute of Geriatric Cardiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Received 27 October 2011; Accepted 8 February 2012
Academic Editor: Keji Chen
Copyright © 2012 Wei-Jian Bei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been increasingly used for the treatment of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Recently, much progress has been made in studies on the mechanisms of action of the lipid-regulating effect of TCM in animal experiments. Current researches showed that the lipid-regulating effect of TCM may be related to the following actions: (1) inhibiting intestinal absorption of lipids; (2) reducing the biosynthesis of endogenous lipids; (3) increasing the catabolism of lipid, sterol substances in live system; (4) increasing the secretion of sterol substances in live system; (5) regulating transcription factors related to lipid metabolism. This paper provides an overview of the recent advances and discusses their implications in future development of lipid-lowering drugs from TCM.