Vascular inflammation and biogenesis of lipid droplets; what is the link?

Endothelial lipid droplets (LDs) were previously understood to be harmful accumulations of lipids. However, a new perspective on endothelial LDs suggests that they are multifunctional organelles which protect the vasculature in response to inflammatory insult or lipid overload. Research summarised in this review suggests that the vascular pathophysiology associated with various diseases may be linked to altered dynamics in LD formation and lipolysis. Thus, pharmacotherapy aimed at normalising the number of vascular LDs may be vasoprotective during vascular inflammation and in the post-prandial phase, as well as in other pathological conditions.