Programmed cell death of lipid-laden macrophages is a prominent feature of atherosclerotic
lesions and mostly ascribed to accumulation of excess intracellular cholesterol. The present
in vitro study investigated whether intracellular triacylglycerol (TG) accumulation could
activate a similar apoptotic response in macrophages. To address this question, we utilized
peritoneal macrophages isolated from mice lacking adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), the
major enzyme responsible for TG hydrolysis in multiple tissues. In Atgl−/− macrophages, we …