High-frequency ultrasound induced the preparation of oxidized low density lipoprotein.

Foam cells have been frequently used in studies related to atherosclerosis. Traditional methods for inducing oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) involve copper ion (Cu ²⁺ ) treatment, which has inherent limitations such as prolonged oxidation times and residual copper ions. This study explored high-frequency ultrasound (400 kHz) as an alternative method for LDL oxidization. The findings demonstrated that high-frequency ultrasound-oxidized LDL (U-oxLDL) exhibited no significant differences compared to copper-oxidized LDL (Cu-oxLDL) in terms of electrophoretic mobility, foam cell morphology, lipid content, and cholesterol transport proteins. Additionally, lipidomic analysis revealed that U-oxLDL was more comparable to native LDL (N-LDL). Transcriptomic profiling of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) treated with oxLDL showed that the gene expression patterns of BMDM foam cells treated with U-oxLDL were over 90 % consistent with those treated with Cu-oxLDL. Therefore, high-frequency ultrasound oxidation method represents a green and efficient strategy for oxLDL preparation, offering potential advantages for advancing atherosclerosis research.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier B.V.)