title: Lipid transfers to HDL are predictors of precocious clinical coronary heart disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High-density-lipoprotein (HDL) has several antiatherogenic properties and, although the concentration of HDL-cholesterol negatively correlates with incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), this is not sufficient to evaluate the overall HDL protective role. The aim was to investigate whether precocious CAD patients show abnormalities in lipid transfers to HDL, a fundamental step in HDL metabolism and function.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty normocholesterolemic CAD patients aged <50 y and 30 controls paired for sex, age and B.M.I. were studied. Fasting blood samples were collected for the in vitro lipid transfer assay and plasma lipid determination. A donor nanoemulsion labeled with radioactive free-cholesterol, cholesteryl esters, phospholipids and triglycerides was incubated with whole plasma and after chemical precipitation of non-HDL fractions, supernatant was counted for radioactivity in HDL.
  
  
  RESULTS
  LDL and HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were equal in both groups. Transfers of free-cholesterol (3.8±1.2%vs 7.0±3.3%,p<0.0001) and triglycerides (3.7±1.7%vs 4.9±1.9%, p=0.0125) were diminished in CAD patients whereas cholesteryl ester transfer increased (6.5±1.9%vs 4.8±1.8%, p=0.0008); phospholipid transfer was equal (17.8±3.5% vs 19.5±3.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alterations in the transfer of lipids to HDL may constitute a new marker for precocious CAD and relation of this metabolic alteration with HDL antiatherogenic function should be investigated in future studies.
authors: Heart Institute (InCor) of the Medical School Hospital, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. ramarans@usp.br
authors: Raul C
authors: RC
authors: Maranhão
authors: Fatima R
authors: FR
authors: Freitas
authors: Célia M
authors: CM
authors: Strunz
authors: Raul D
authors: RD
authors: Santos
authors: Alfredo J
authors: AJ
authors: Mansur
authors: Antônio P
authors: AP
authors: Mansur
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008075:Lipoproteins, HDL / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D008075:Lipoproteins, HDL