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Updated: May 28, 2026
Left Lung Orthotopic Transplantation in a Juvenile Porcine Model for ESLP
Published on: February 14, 2022
Impact of lung transplantation on serum lipids in COPD
Robert M Reed1, Salman Hashmi, Michael Eberlein
1University of Maryland School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, 110 South Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. rreed@medicine.umaryland.edu
Background:
Severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is associated with high HDL cholesterol (HDL-C). We sought to examine the effect of lung transplantation on lipid profiles in patients with COPD.
Methods:
We analyzed 101 lung transplant recipients in a retrospective cohort of patients from two centers in whom lipid values were available both before as well as after transplantation. Sixty-one subjects were transplanted for severe COPD (93% GOLD stage 4).
Results:
Eighty-nine percent of subjects with COPD exhibited a decline in HDL-C. Median decline for the COPD cohort was 25 mg/dL (IQR 12-38 mg/dL, p < 0.0001). Non-COPD subjects exhibited no significant changes in HDL-C. Other lipid changes in the COPD cohort included a rise in triglycerides of 70 mg/dL (IQR 35 to 140, p < 0.0001). Decreases in HDL-C levels were independent from the rise in triglyceride levels. Neither LDL-C nor non-HDL-C demonstrated significant changes. Subjects with greater increases in prednisone exposure post-transplant exhibited lesser declines in HDL-C. Compared with tacrolimus, cyclosporine had no effect on observed changes in HDL-C or triglycerides, but was associated with a greater median rise in LDL-C.
Conclusions:
In patients with COPD, lung transplantation results in reductions in the serum levels of HDL-C. These changes are not observed in patients undergoing lung transplantation for diagnoses other than COPD.
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