Determination of high-density lipoprotein phospholipids in serum

I describe a method for measuring high-density lipoprotein phospholipids. Magnesium chloride and dextran sulfate are used to precipitate all low-density and very-low-density lipoproteins. The supernate contains only high-density lipoproteins, the phospholipid concentration of which is determined by an enzymic method. The precision of the method (CV) is 2.35% (10 repeated assays), and the mean value for HDL-phospholipids was 1006 (SD 248) mg/L for 30 apparently healthy subjects. I used electrophoresis and enzymic color development to confirm the presence of HDL-phospholipids. Results are compared with those obtained by an ultracentrifugation method.