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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Isolation and Analysis of Plasma Lipoproteins by Ultracentrifugation
Published on: January 28, 2021
The relationship between high density lipoprotein subclass profile and plasma lipids concentrations
1Laboratory of Endocrinology and Metabolism, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Insights
Altered high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subclasses are linked to atherosclerosis risk. The triglyceride to HDL-cholesterol ratio is a sensitive indicator of these changes, suggesting it can help assess cardiovascular disease risk.
Area of Science:
- Lipid metabolism and cardiovascular disease research.
- Biochemistry and molecular biology of lipoproteins.
- Clinical diagnostics and risk assessment.
Background:
- High-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles have crucial antiatherogenic properties.
- Alterations in plasma lipid levels can impact lipoprotein composition and distribution, influencing atherosclerosis risk.
- Understanding HDL subclasses is vital for assessing metabolic changes and disease progression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the relationship between plasma lipid levels and HDL subclasses distribution.
- To identify key lipid ratios as indicators of HDL subclass alterations.
- To explore the role of apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in HDL subclass modulation.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing research on plasma lipids and HDL subclass distribution.
- Analysis of the impact of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels on HDL subclasses.
- Evaluation of the sensitivity of TC/HDL-C and TG/HDL-C ratios in reflecting HDL subclass changes.
Main Results:
- Hypertriglyceridemia, high cholesterol, and mixed hyperlipidemia are associated with a shift towards smaller HDL particles.
- The TG/HDL-C ratio is more sensitive than TC/HDL-C in reflecting HDL subclass distribution changes.
- Elevated apoA-I levels may protect against TG-induced reduction in large HDL particles (HDL(2b)).
Conclusions:
- The TG/HDL-C ratio, along with TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C, can serve as a valuable indicator of HDL subclass distribution.
- Plasma lipids, apolipoprotein concentrations, and their ratios are important for assessing coronary heart disease (CHD) risk.
- Therapeutic strategies targeting the normalization of HDL particle number and distribution are crucial for managing atherosclerosis.
Abstract:
HDL particles possess multiple antiatherogenic activities and the identification and differentiation of individual HDL subclasses may be useful in documentation and understanding of metabolic changes of different HDL subclasses. The major plasma lipids exist and are transported in the form of lipoprotein complexes. Hence, alterations in plasma lipids levels can interfere with the composition, content, and distribution of plasma lipoprotein subclasses that affect atherosclerosis risk. The research review major discussed the relationship between plasma lipids levels and HDL subclasses distribution. The general shift toward smaller size of HDL particle size in HTG, HCL and MHL subjects, and the changes were more prominent with the elevation of TG and TC levels which imply that HDL maturation might be abnormal and RCT pathway might be weaken, and these changes were more seriously in MHL subjects. Plasma contents of small sized HDL particles significantly higher, whereas those of large sized HDL particles were significantly lower with elevation of TG/HDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratios. Increased in the TC/HDL-C ratio alone did not influence the distributions of HDL subclasses significantly when the TG/HDL-C ratio was low (TG/HDL-C ≤ 2.5). Hence, the TG/HDL-C ratio might be more sensitive to reflect the alteration of HDL subclass distribution than the TC/HDL-C ratio. In LDL-C/HDL-C ≤ 2.3 group, the pattern of distribution in HDL subclass was in agreement with the normolipidemic subjects. Moreover, considering the relative ease of measuring TC/HDL-C, TG/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C ratios, as opposed to measuring HDL subclasses, these 3 ratios together may be a good indicator of HDL subclass distribution. The protective effect of increased apoA-I levels against the reduction of HDL(2b) caused by elevated TG concentration. On one hand, plasma HDL-C and apoA-I appear to play a coordinated role in the assembly of HDL particles and the determination of their contents among the total subjects. On the other hand, the apoA-I level might be a more powerful factor than HDL-C to influence the distribution of HDL subclasses in hyperlipidemic subjects. At the same time, from point of HDL subclasses distribution, the plasma lipids, apos concentrations and apos ratios should be considered while assessing the CHD risk. Abnormality of HDL subclasses distribution may result in accelerated atherosclerosis, therapeutic normalization of attenuated antiatherogenic HDL function in terms of both particle number and distribution of HDL particles is the target of innovative pharmacological approaches to large-sized HDL particles rising, including enhanced apoA-I levels.
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