Associations between leukocyte counts and cardiovascular disease risk factors in apparently healthy Japanese men

Increased leukocyte counts, particularly white blood cell and neutrophil counts, are reportedly associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and mortality in subjects with acute and moderate coronary diseases. However, few reports have determined the associations between leukocyte subset (i.e., white blood cells, neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, basophils and eosinophils) counts and CVD risk factors. In this study, we examined the associations between leukocyte subset counts and CVD risk factors in apparently healthy Japanese men. We conducted a cross-sectional study of men who participated in health checkups, and selected those who were not being treated for metabolic diseases. We determined associations between leukocyte subset counts and CVD risk factors by multivariate linear regression (MLR) analysis and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Overall, 3,576 subjects aged 49.3±5.75 (range, 40-59) y were recruited. MLR and ANCOVA showed that white blood cell, neutrophil, monocyte counts are associated with decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and increased C-reactive protein levels, the lymphocyte count is positively associated with lipid abnormalities (i.e., decreased HDL-C, increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and increased triacylglycerol (TG)), and the basophil count is associated with increased TG and liver injury marker levels (i.e., alanine aminotransferase). Our results in this study demonstrated that leukocyte subset counts showed differential associations with CVD risk factors in apparently healthy Japanese men.