2003/11/06 by Paul Wentworth, Jorgé Nieva, Cindy Takeuchi +9 · 3 citations
Medicine · Environmental Science · #Medical and Biological Ozone Research #Air Quality and Health Impacts #Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1089525
openalex publication_date 2003/11/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Here, we report evidence for the production of ozone in human disease. Signature products unique to cholesterol ozonolysis are present within atherosclerotic tissue at the time of carotid endarterectomy, suggesting that ozone production occurred during lesion development. Furthermore, advanced atherosclerotic plaques generate ozone when the leukocytes within the diseased arteries are activated in vitro. The steroids produced by cholesterol ozonolysis cause effects that are thought to be critical to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, including cytotoxicity, lipid-loading in macrophages, and deformation of the apolipoprotein B-100 secondary structure. We propose the trivial designation "atheronals" for this previously unrecognized class of steroids.