Scientists at King's College London have measured the levels of lipoproteins, the components of cholesterol, in a population study. The findings, reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, could lead to improvements in how early cardiovascular disease is diagnosed.
While the main portion of HDL cholesterol, considered to be good, is apoA1, and the main component of bad cholesterol or LDL is apoliprotein B, apoB, it seems that another group of lipoproteins altogether are better indicators of so-called good and bad cholesterol. The other group of apolipoproteins, apoE, apoC2 and apoC3, are connected to fat molecules called very low-density lipoproteins, VLDL, and another kind of fat called triglycerides. The work determined that apoE, apoC2 and apoC3 are more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease than apoA1 and apoB.
"We directly compared the association of a broad panel of apolipoproteins to new onset of cardiovascular disease over a 10-year observation period, and found that while apoB was predictive, other apolipoproteins, namely aopE, aopC2 and apoC3, were even better," said lead author of the report, Professor Manuel Mayr of King's College London. "These unexpected strong associations of VLDL-associated apolipoproteins with cardiovascular disease provide support to expanding the current measurements of apolipoproteins and to the concept of targeting additional apolipoproteins to reduce risk."
