USC physician reduces deposits of cholesterol on artery walls
Cholesterol deposits on the inside of artery walls have been greatly reduced in laboratory experiments conducted by a university physician.
The experiments were directed by Dr. Richard J. Bing, professor of medicine and chief of experimental cardiology at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Dr. Bing was assisted by Dr. J.S.M. Sarma, Dr. Renate Fischer, and Dr. Shigeaki Ikeda.
This is the first of a two-part series on the cholesterol studies of Dr. Richard Bing, professor of medicine, who won the American Heart Association’s Research Achievement Award in 1974.
Dr. Bing’s research earned him the American Heart Association’s Research Achievement Award in 1974.
Working with sections of coronary arteries taken from animals and humans, Dr. Bing and his colleagues circulated blood plasma through the dissected arteries. They then measured the amount of cholesterol taken up from the plasma and deposited on the arterial walls.
(Cholesterol, a waxy substance related to fats in the blood, can be deposited on the walls of arteries in amounts large enough to slow or even block completely
the flow of blood; this blockage of a heart vessel is a major cause of heart attacks.)
Dr. Bing found that the addition of the substance ketocholesterol to the plasma reduced the amount of cholesterol deposited on the walls of arteries by an average of 90 per cent.
Ketocholesterol is an analogue of cholesterol. It is chemically almost identical but has a different metabolic action. Because it does not solidify readily, it is less harmful to the blood vessels then cholesterol.
This discovery, which Dr. Bing reported in a recent issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, came about during a series of experiments intended to gain more information about the action of cholesterol.
“We reasoned that if we gave the arteries something that looks like cholesterol,” Dr. Bing explained, “they might take up the substitute instead.”
This theory proved correct in the 17 experiments that Dr. Bing conducted. After dissecting all fat and connective tissue from the arteries, two small sections were cut from each so that the results of an untreated section could be compared with the results of an experimental section.
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Summer
Trojan
Gift from Shah of Iran to benefit professor
I®	University of Southern California
Volume LXV11I, Number 9	Los Angeles, California_Tuesday/ July 22, 1975
$1 MILLION ‘CHAIR’
specialization are carbonate reservoirs, clays, compaction of sediments, subsidence and fluid flow through porous media.
A native of Iran who came to the United States in 1945, Chilingarian was one of the first Iranian students at the university, where he earned his bachelor of science degree (magna cum laude) in petroleum engineering in 1949; master of science degree in 1950, and Ph. D. degree in geology with a minor in petroleum engineering in 1956.
During the years from 1950-56, Chilingarian was a part-time instructor at the university and has since been a full-time faculty member.
Chilingarian has authored more than 100 research articles, 300 scientific reviews and 14 books. Three new texts are in preparation. Several of his books and publications have been translated into foreign languages for use in classroom instruction throughout th^
world.
He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Gamma Epsilon, Pi Epsilon Tau and Sigma Xi, and is a fellow of both the Geological Society of America and the American Institute of Chem ists/
Chilingarian has received numerous awards from the professional organizations and foreign governments, and was senior petroleum engineering advisor for the United Nations from 1967 to 1969.
He received an honorary doctorate in 1960 from the Academia Studiorum Minerva in Italy, and is honorary dean of Tatung Institute of Technology, Taipei, and honorary advisor to National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
At USC, he received the Teaching Excellence Award in 1969, and the Distinguished Faculty Award and Archimedes Circle Faculty Award in 1971.
Herberger sees an assortment of villains but insists that the federal government, in its role as a watchdog and protector of the consumer, may inadvertently be fostering an animosity between consumer and manufacturer.
The business educator says that his research into the consensus among polltakers shows the public must be protected against unprincipled business practices. Further, various opinion samplers insist that the public must also be protected against itself. This is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that—in response to poor information—members ofthe public often make buying decisions that are against their own ecological convictions.
A growing reliance on government legislation has developed and the public has indicated a strong tendency to go along with goverment’s rules and restrictions, Herberger said. He believes that the unhappy combination of wrong roles for consumer, manufacturer, and government could be improved if:
•	“Federal agencies did more in the way of communicating accurate, actionable information to the business community as well as to the consumer.
•	“The producer broadened the product bundle to include information that will assist the consumer in buying intelligently. If the manufacturer’s product has features that make it more environmentally acceptable, then the manufacturer should say so.
•	“Trade associations take the responsibility for self-regulation.
•	“All three factors—the consumer, the manufacturer, and the government—establish stability in the area of conflict regarding resource scarcity by relying on each other to do voluntarily what is best for society as a whole.”
SUMMER SUNNING—Cindy Eisley, a senior journalism major, takes advantage of the hot summer sun between classes on one of the grass islands on University Avenue. Edward S. Brady, associate dean of the
School of Pharmacy, explains what a person should do in case he or she gets too much sun, in a story on page two. ST photo by Mike Ito.
SAYS ASSOCIATE DEAN
George V. Chilingarian has been named the first occupant of the H.I.M. Shahanshah Aryamehr Pahlavi Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the university.
Chilingarian has been a member of the petroleum engineering faculty at the university since 1956.
Named in honor ofthe Shah of Iran, the endowed chair (professorship) was established in September of 1974 by a gift of $1 million to the university from the Shah, presented through the National Iranian Oil Company.
A major objective of the chair is to further the training of Iranian nationals as petroleum engineers and the exchange of technology between the United States and Iran.
When establishment of the chair was announced in Los Angeles last fall, Ardeshir Zahedi, imperial Iranian ambassador to the United States, said:
“Iran’s great need is for human resources. Acknowledging the importance of oil as an energy resource brings us to the realization that we need many
more capable men and women returning to our country to manage our resources.”
Occupants of the Shah’s chair at the university will be selected on a rotating basis, and their expertise will cover such areas as
Consumers kept poorly informed
Today’s consumer is concerned about his environment. He is willing, even anxious, to buy those products that will have the least damaging effect on his environment.
But he is distracted from doing so by insufficient, often poor and frequently contradictory information and guidance.
So says Roy A. Herberger, Jr., associate dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration at the university.
The confusion, which seems to have existed throughout the current business recession, covers consumers at all levels of education and income.
GEORGE V. CHILINGARIAN
carbonate rocks, reservoir engineering, secondary recovery and other fields of importance to petroleum production in Iran.
Chilingarian’s own areas of