Skin cholesterol and DNA in young patients with myocardial infarction

Disturbances in cholesterol metabolism are connected with an increased risk of clinical complications to atherosclerosis. Serum cholesterol has been used as an index of such disturbances. However, recently the significance of local tissue, and cellular factors in cholesterol metabolism and atherogenesis have been better appreciated. As easily accessible sources of cells and tissues, skin biopsies have been suggested to increase the possibilities to assess the extent of atherosclerosis in an individual. In order to test this hypothesis, skin biopsies were taken from 24 male patients, who had sustained a myocardial infarction before the age of 40, and from 42 healthy, randomly selected male volunteers, matched for age and serum cholesterol. Cholesterol and DNA contents were measured in epidermis and dermis separately; no significant differences were found between the groups. A significant, positive correlation between serum and dermis cholesterol was found in both groups. Our data do not support the hypothesis that skin biopsies discriminate individuals with atherosclerosis better than serum cholesterol. It is possible that previous data, suggesting a correlation between skin cholesterol and atherosclerosis, might reflect the well known correlation between serum cholesterol and atherosclerosis.