With the recent discovery of the role of ABCA1 in lipid efflux, and the potential regulation of ABCA1 as a means to regulate plasma HDL levels, much research has focused on the transcriptional and posttranslational regulation of ABCA1. There are multiple elements in the proximal promoter of ABCA1 that may regulate its expression (1). Cholesterol loading strongly stimulates ABCA1 expression in macrophages, where it evidently increases ABCA1 mRNA abundance and protein levels, although the mechanism is not understood (2). ABCA1 gene regulation is also mediated by the nuclear liver X receptors (LXR ␣ and  ) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs) (3, 4), and their respective ligands, oxysterols and 9-cis -retinoic acid (9cRA). Cavelier et al. (5) showed, in mice carrying a human ABCA1 transgene under the control of its natural flanking sequences, that the human and mouse ABCA1 genes responded differently to cyclic AMP (cAMP), and that novel, as-yet-unreported promoters may exist that regulate ABCA1 expression and activity. As such, cAMP significantly stimulates efflux in J774, mouse peritoneal macrophages (MPMs), and RAW 264 cells (6-10) and not in THP-1 cells or human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) (11, 12). cAMP's primary effect may be on transcription and protein expression, because efflux is not stimulated before 6 h, and protein synthesis inhibitors prevent stimulation (13). At the other end, efflux was reduced to near baseline levels within 6 h upon removal of cAMP, indicating that ABCA1 is highly regulated at the protein level (8,(14)(15)(16). ABCA1 can be phosphorylated in vitro (17,18), and this can be regulated by protein kinase A (PKA) (18,19). Activators of PKA, including cAMP, are known to stimulate specific efflux and ABCA1 phosphorylation, whereas inhibitors of PKA cause decreased efflux and reduced phosphorylation (18,(20)(21)(22)(23). Therefore, cAMP promotes lipid efflux by both stimulating expression of ABCA1 and activation of ABCA1 by phosphorylation.It is known that many other signaling pathways can also affect lipid efflux. Janus kinase 2 appears to selectively modulate apolipoprotein interactions with ABCA1 without di-