[Changes in the serum protein composition in experimental hypercholesterolemia]

Cholesterol accumulation, quantitative changes and composition of lipoproteins, total proteins of blood serum and protein fractions obtained by acid extraction are studied in hypercholesterinemia dynamics in rabbits. It is found that the initial period of cholesterinosis in blood serum is marked by an increased content of total proteins and proteins extracted by acid followed, however, by substantial lowering of the level of these compounds. The proteins obtained by acid extraction are characterized by more explicit changes. This permits assuming their important role in the pathogenesis of hypercholesterinemia. The obtained results make it possible to state that the investigated proteins possess the alkaline properties. The data available in literature on the ability of alkaline polypeptides to bind cholesterol permit assuming that the investigated proteins have the same properties and, hence, can participate in the molecular mechanisms of cholesterol transport as well as in the processes of synthesis and transformations of separate classes of lipoproteins.