Quantification of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol by precipitation with phosphotungstic acid/MgCl2

We evaluated the use of a modified phosphotungstic acid/MgCl2 precipitation procedure for the precipitation of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. Precipitation of these lipoproteins [very-low- and low-density lipoproteins, and lipoprotein (a)] is complete, with negligible coprecipitation of high-density lipoprotein subfractions (HDL1, HDL2, HDL3), even in hypertriglyceridemic sera. In comparison with ultracentrifugation, the precipitation method yields, on the average, values that are 0.17 mmol/L lower for cholesterol values but almost identical for apolipoprotein A-I and phosphatidylcholine. Looking for delta 3,5-cholestadiene formed from cholesterol in the precipitation residue, we used "high-performance" liquid chromatography and "high-performance" thin-layer chromatography and found none.