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Particle numbers of lipoprotein subclasses and arterial stiffness among middle-aged men from the ERA JUMP study

Abstract

We examined the association between serum lipoprotein subclasses and the three measures of arterial stiffness, that is, (i) carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), which is a gold standard measure of central arterial stiffness, (ii) brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV), which is emerging as a combined measure of central and peripheral arterial stiffness and (iii) femoral-ankle PWV (faPWV), which is a measure of peripheral arterial stiffness. Among a population-based sample of 701 apparently healthy Caucasian, Japanese American and Korean men aged 40–49 years, concentrations of lipoprotein particles were assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and the PWV was assessed with an automated waveform analyzer (VP2000, Omron, Japan). Multiple linear regressions were performed to analyse the association between each NMR lipoprotein subclasses and PWV measures, after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors and other confounders. A cutoff of P<0.01 was used for determining significance. All PWV measures had significant correlations with total and small low-density lipoprotein particle number (LDL-P) (all P<0.0001) but not LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) (all P>0.1), independent of race and age. In multivariate regression analysis, no NMR lipoprotein subclass was significantly associated with cfPWV (all P>0.01). However, most NMR lipoprotein subclasses had significant associations with both baPWV and faPWV (P<0.01). In this study of healthy middle-aged men, as compared with cfPWV, both baPWV and faPWV had stronger associations with particle numbers of lipoprotein subclasses. Our results may suggest that both baPWV and faPWV are related to arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis, whereas cfPWV may represent arterial stiffness alone.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry for Health and Welfare 2004-E71001-00, 2005-E71001-00, Korea, R01HL68200, R01HL071561 and N01AG12100, from the National Institutes of Health, the USA, B 16790335 and A 13307016 from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. We thank Sara Strollo, MPH for her editorial assistance during preparation of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to A Sekikawa.

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Rachel Mackey has been PI of an unrestricted research grant from LipoScience, Inc. to the University of Pittsburgh. LipoScience had no involvement in the design/analysis/conduct of that study or this study and manuscript other than performing the blinded laboratory measurements.

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Vishnu, A., Choo, J., Masaki, K. et al. Particle numbers of lipoprotein subclasses and arterial stiffness among middle-aged men from the ERA JUMP study. J Hum Hypertens 28, 111–117 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2013.60

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