Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) risk inversely associates with levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The protective effect of HDL is thought to depend on its functionality, such as its ability to induce cholesterol efflux.
Materials and methods: We compared plasma cholesterol efflux capacity between male familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) patients with and without CHD relative to their non-FH brothers, and examined HDL constituents including sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and its carrier apolipoprotein M (apoM).
Results: Seven FH patients were asymptomatic and six had experienced a cardiac event at a mean age of 39 years. Compared to their non-FH brothers, cholesterol efflux from macrophages to plasma from the FH patients without CHD was 16 ± 22% (mean ± SD) higher and to plasma from the FH patients with CHD was 7 ± 8% lower (P = 0·03, CHD vs. non-CHD). Compared to their non-FH brothers, FH patients without CHD displayed significantly higher levels of HDL-cholesterol, HDL-S1P and apoM, while FH patients with CHD displayed lower levels than their non-FH brothers.
Conclusions: A higher plasma cholesterol efflux capacity and higher S1P and apoM content of HDL in asymptomatic FH patients may play a role in their apparent protection from premature CHD.
Keywords: Apolipoprotein M; cholesterol efflux; familial hypercholesterolaemia; high-density lipoprotein; sphingolipids; sphingosine-phosphate.
© 2016 The Authors. European Journal of Clinical Investigation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.