A rapid anion-exchange chromatography for measurement of cholesterol concentrations in five lipoprotein classes and estimation of lipoprotein profiles in male volunteers without overt diseases.

BACKGROUND

Analysis of lipoprotein profile gives important clinical information for lipid-lowering therapy which prevents atherosclerotic diseases. The lipoprotein classes can be isolated from serum with ultracentrifugation, which inevitably consumes a long time and needs large serum volume. We have established a method with anion-exchange chromatography with 1.0 µL of the injected volume in 5.2 min for assay of one sample.

METHODS

One-hundred-forty-one male volunteers without overt diseases were divided three groups (Group 1, non-dyslipidemia with LDL-cholesterol [LDL-C] <120 mg/dL and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) ≥40 mg/dL; Group 2, borderline dyslipidemia with 120 ≤ LDL-C < 140 mg/dL and HDL-C ≥40 mg/dL; Group 3, dyslipidemia with LDL-C ≥ 140 mg/dL or HDL-C < 40 mg/dL). Their lipoprotein profiles were evaluated by rapid anion-exchange chromatography, which measured concentrations of HDL-C, LDL-C, IDL-cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol, and other fraction (chylomicron + lipoprotein [a])-cholesterol (other-C).

RESULTS

The within-day and between-day assay coefficients of variation of lipoprotein cholesterol values were 0.33-4.31% and 2.37-9.19%, respectively. The correlation coefficients between values of HDL-C, LDL-C, IDL-C and VLDL-C by the anion-exchange chromatography and those by ultracentrifugal method were 0.97, 0.92, 0.58 and 0.94, respectively. Group 3 had significantly lower HDL-C and higher concentrations of IDL-C, VLDL-C and other-C than did Group 1. Group 2, borderline dyslipidemia, had significantly higher concentrations of IDL-C and VLDL-C than did Group 1.

CONCLUSION

The rapid anion-exchange chromatography assay may be sufficiently applied to the assessment of borderline dyslipidemia.