The papers in the present volume were presented on November lst-3rd, 1973, in Rome on the occasion of an International Post graduate Course sponsored by the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, and the Fondazione Giovanni Lorenzini. The purpose of this course was to gather information and to draw attention to the role of diet in the pathogenesis of experi mental and human arteriosclerosis, as well as its prevention and therapy. Konrad Bloch, in the opening lecture, emphasized the features unique to fatty acid synthesis in animal tissues and discussed the importance of comparative biochemical research in the study of control mechanisms of lipid biosynthesis. The lectures in the morning were followed in the afternoon by short practical demonstrations (R. Angelico, O. Lostia, A. Menotti, D.H. Blankenhorn, A. Ferro Luzzi). Particular attention was paid to the problem of dietary edu cation in Italy, during a round-table discussion on November 2nd (G. Bergami, G. Ricci, G. Crepaldi, F. Fidanza, S.F. Feruglio, M. Proia, A. Mariani, L. Ribolzi). The educational purpose of the course is obvious in Italy, a country where the people had been accustomed for centuries to the intake of a virtually nonatherogenic diet, until, quite recently, the migration from agricultural to industrialized areas assumed sociologically significant levels. It was then found that the lipoproteinemic patterns of the migrated population had shifted toward higher levels.

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Some Aspects of the Control of Lipid Biosynthesis.- The Relationship of Diet and Atherosclerosis in Diabetic Macacanigra.- The Effects of Physical Exercise in Reversing Experimental Atherosclerosis.- Diet and Human Atherosclerosis Carbohydrates.- The Effects of Feeding Various Dietary Fats on the Development and Regression of Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis.- Drugs and Foods on Contraction of Endothelial Cells as a Key Mechanism in Atherogenesis and Treatment of Atherosclerosis with Endothelial-Cell Relaxants (Cyclic AMP Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors).- The Effects of Lipids and Fatty Acids on Blood Coagulation and Platelets in Relation to Thrombosis.- Diagnostic Methods for the Study of Human Atherosclerosis.- Diet-Related Risk Factors for Human Atherosclerosis: Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension, Hyperglycemia Current Status.- Diet and Plasma Lipids.- Outlines of Dietary Prevention of Atherosclerosis.- The Influence of Dietary Fats on Hypercoagulation and Thrombosis.- Prevention of Atherosclerosis by Diet: Present State and Conclusions.- The Effects of Feeding Various Carbohydrates on the Development of Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis.