PPARs: regulators of metabolism and as therapeutic targets in cardiovascular disease. Part I: PPAR-α

This article provides a comprehensive review about the molecular and metabolic actions of PPAR-α. It describes its structural features, ligand specificity, gene transcription mechanisms, functional characteristics and target genes. In addition, recent progress with the use of loss of function and gain of function mouse models in the discovery of diverse biological functions of PPAR-α, particularly in the vascular system and the status of the development of new single, dual, pan and partial PPAR agonists (PPAR modulators) in the clinical management of metabolic diseases are presented. This review also summarizes the clinical outcomes from a large number of clinical trials aimed at evaluating the atheroprotective actions of current clinically used PPAR-α agonists, fibrates and statin–fibrate combination therapy.