**1. Introduction**

126 Dyslipidemia - From Prevention to Treatment

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cholesterol acyltransferase gene 608C/T polymorphism associated with atherosclerotic cerebral infarction]. Zhonghua Yi. Xue. Yi. Chuan Xue. Za Zhi. 23: The pathway of intracellular cholesterol synthesis, uptake and efflux is much affected by both the positive and the negative feedbacks from direct interaction between cholesterol and its oxygenated derivatives (oxysterols) as well as the regulatory factors such as the sterolregulatory-element-binding protein (SREBP)– cleavage-activating protein–Insig complex (Radhakrishnan, Ikeda et al. 2007), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase (Sever, Song et al. 2003) and liver X receptors (LXRs) (Chen, Chen et al. 2007). Since these regulatory factors are located in the compartments with comparatively low cholesterol density, they can react promptly on acute changes in local cholesterol or oxysterol density. While much is known about the interaction between these regulatory factors and cholesterol, only little has been studied about the mechanism to deliver the cholesterol or oxysterol to its appropriate compartments.

Therefore, there arises a possibility that oxysterol-binding protein/oxysterol-binding protein-related protein (OSBP/ORP) family may regulate such processes by binding oxyterol and/or cholesterol and by functioning as a cholesterol sensor or cholesterol transporter. According to the study about the family members, it is now becoming clear that they affect the regulation such as the cholesterol or triglyceride level.

For comprehensive information on OSBP/ORP family, please refer to several good reviews already published (Fairn and McMaster 2008; Ngo, Colbourne et al. 2010; Raychaudhuri and Prinz 2010; Vihervaara, Jansen et al. 2011). This review focuses more on the family's association with dyslipidemia from a perspective of the individual features of the structure, the expression, the cellular localization, the molecular functions, and the epidemiologial study-based information of each member.
