Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: The present study was designed in order to investigate the lipid profile, as well as LDL oxidizability in vitro, of female progeny (girls and young women) with positive family history of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and/or hyperlipidemia.

Patients and methods: In the present study, 30 healthy female subjects were recruited, aged 3 to 30 years old (mean±S.D. 14.4±8.02 years old). These subjects were progeny of families with history of CVD and/or hyperlipidemia. Kinetic study of LDL oxidation with Cu²⁺ took place in vitro. Lag time (tlag) and malonyldialdehyde (MDA) were used as indexes of LDL oxidizability. Moreover, lipid profile parameters were determined, such as total cholesterol (CH), triglycerides (TG), HDL, LDL, apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) and B100 (apoB100) and lipoprotein (α) (Lp(α)), after overnight fast.

Results: Mean values±S.D. of the parameters under study were: tlag 82.16±16.5 min, MDA 18.19±4.79 nmol/mg LDL, apoA1 1.39±0.35 g/l, apoB100 1.16±0.56 g/l, Lp(α) 24.4±21.55 g/l. Mean values±S.D. of the lipid parameters for subjects <16 years old (n=18) and ≥16 years old (n=12), were: CH 222.85±99.2 and 214.58±45.01 mg/dl, TG 64.2±23.55 and 93.1±93.41 mg/dl, HDL 44.1±9.47 and 47.3±10.47 mg/dl and LDL 165.9±95.1 and 149.1±40.54 mg/dl, respectively. Two thirds of the subjects were of medium or high risk for a future cardiovascular disease or hyperlipidemia. Moreover, tlag presented significant positive correlation with HDL serum levels (r=0.536, P=0.002).

Conclusions: In female progeny with family history of CVD and/or hyperlipidemia, lipid profile should be determined for early detection of progeny of high risk for CVD. HDL serum levels should be high above recommended, as long as they seem to be correlated with increased resistance of LDL to oxidation.