Advanced glycosylation end products (AGE) and its receptor (RAGE) axis is involved in the regulation of lipid homeostasis and is critical in the pathogenesis of diabetic atherosclerosis. We investigated the protective role of resveratrol against the AGE-induced impairment on macrophage lipid homeostasis. In THP-1-derived macrophages, RAGE was dose-dependently induced by AGE and played a key role in the AGE-induced cholesterol accumulation. Resveratrol markedly reduced RAGE expression via peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ but not PPARα or AMP-activated protein kinase. Importantly, pretreatment with resveratrol significantly ameliorated AGE-induced up-regulation of scavenger receptor-A (SR-A) and down-regulation of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) A1 and ABCG1 and thus effectively prevented the cholesterol accumulation in macrophages as shown by cellular cholesterol analysis and oil red O staining. Moreover, blockade of PPARγ abolished all these effects of resveratrol. Collectively, our results indicate that resveratrol prevents the impairment of AGE on macrophage lipid homeostasis partially by suppressing RAGE via PPARγ activation, which might provide new insight into the protective role of resveratrol against diabetic atherosclerosis.

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