Differential distribution of sphingomyelins among plasma lipoprotein classes

Individual and pooled samples of plasma from normolipemic and hyperlipemic subjects were separated into very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein fractions (HDL2 and HDL3) by conventional ultracentrifugation and total lipid extracts prepared by standard methods. The composition of the molecular species of the sphingomyelins in each lipoprotein class was determined by packed column and capillary gas-liquid chromatography of the trimethylsilyl (TMS) and t-butyldimethylsilyl (t-BDMS) ethers and by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry of t-BDMS ethers of ceramides derived by phospholipase C hydrolysis of the corresponding parent compounds. It was demonstrated that the molecular weight of the species of the sphingomyelins increases with the density of the lipoprotein fraction in normolipemic subjects, and that this increase is due to an increase in the chain length of the fatty acids in the ceramide molecules. In contrast, patients with type IV hyperlipoproteinemia possessed similar species in the LDL and HDL fractions, while maintaining normal differences between HDL and VLDL. Type III patients possessed normal HDL and VLDL differences, but had variable LDL. Type II patients had ceramide profiles for VLDL, LDL, and HDL fractions that were very similar to those of normals. The differential distribution of the molecular species of the sphingomyelins is rationalized on the basis of a lateral phase separation of the short and long chain sphingomyelins during the shedding of the excess VLDL or chylomicron surface material and a subsequent preferential transformation of the long chain species into HDL. The LDL sphingomyelins in type III hyperlipemia are variable and approximate either the VLDL or HDL composition.