Measurement of plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein and its clinical implications

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) has been shown to exist in human circulating plasma. Several groups including ours have developed methods for immunologically measuring OxLDL, which have been applied to several clinical, both cross-sectional and prospective, studies. These data clearly show that OxLDL levels correlate well with the severity of cardiovascular diseases. In particular, recent observations suggest that plasma OxLDL levels could be a useful marker for predicting future cardiovascular events; however, substantial differences exist among the different methods of OxLDL measurement. To evaluate the clinical data on circulating OxLDL, a proper understanding of the similarity, differences, and limitation of the methods is needed. This paper summarizes the characteristics of the methods used and recent clinical findings.