Plasma, apolipoprotein, A-I and A-II levels in hyperlipidemia

Some of the component moieties of high density lipoproteins (HDL) were analyzed in normal subjects and in patients with hyperlipidemia. Apoproteins A-I and A-II were quantified by radioimmunoassay, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were assessed on heparin-MnCl2 supernates of fasting plasmas. We found that HDL is enriched in triglycerides in all forms of hyperlipidemia, while the proportion of ApoA-II is unaltered and the proportion of ApoA-I is decreased. Thus, the composition of HDL is altered in hupertirglyceridemia. The molecular associations of ApoA-I and ApoA-II in plasma were also examined by assaying the apoprotein contents of plasma fractions prepared by ultracentrifugation and by gel filtration column chromatograpy. The ApoA-I contents of d smaller than 1.063 fraction increased in hyperlipidemia from smaller than 0.5% to approximately 2%, but the ApoA-I contents of the d greater than 1.21 fraction remained at less than 12% of total plasmas with triglyceride levels smaller than 1500 mg/dl. d greater than 1.21 ApoA-I rose to 23% in one plasma with a triglyceride level of greater than 1700 mg/dl. On column chromatography, ApoA-I eluted with the lipoproteins and also in a fraction whose molecular weight (MW) appeared to be approximately 50,000 daltons. The proportion of plasma ApoA-I which eluted in the 50,000 MW peak was positively correlated with plasma triglyceride levels, but at triglyceride levels of less than 1500 mg/dl, less than 20% of ApoA-I was in the 50,000 MW peak. Between levels of approximately 2000 and 12,000 mg/dl, the percentage "50,000 M.W. ApoA-1" was 20-25%. The ApoA-II contents of d smaller than 1.063 fractions were also increased in hyperlipidemia, but greater than 95% of ApoA-II was found in the HDL fractions in both normal and hyperlipidemic plasma both by column chromatography and ultracentrifugation. Thus, the molecular association of ApoA-I appears to be altered in hyperlipidemia.