Evidence of transfer of components from LDL to HDL?

(BuckRimfire) #1

One of the more obscure details in the Lipid Energy Model is that as VLDLs offload triglycerides and shrink, they transfer their now-excess surface components (unesterified cholesterol and phospholipids, maybe some integral membrane proteins) to HDL particles to maintain a correct surface-to-volume ratio.

I assume that is rather old biochemistry/physiology (years to decades). Does anyone know of an actual reference to the evidence for this process? A quick search is full of other HDL roles, rather than what I’m looking for.

(E P) #2

Are you saying that VLDL going down always means HDL going up? I’m curious about this too - where should I start reading to learn more?

(Bob M) #3

Did you see this paper?

image

They do list some papers.

Edit: I’m assuming that increased LDL particle mass = LDL number? That is, the number of LDL particles also increases?

I always have “high” LDL particle numbers. Not as high as an LMHR, but “high” on my report.

(BuckRimfire) #4

Yes, I think references 20 and 21 are what I’m looking for. I should have thought to look at their paper.

I’m taking Rosuvastatin for a couple of months to amuse my PCP. Need to get a blood draw for my lipid panel ASAP so I can stop taking the stuff and see if my brain fog clears up! That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

(Bob M) #5

I had a friend who would take his statin for a while before a blood draw, get a good “report”, then stop taking them. Not sure if he still actually filled the prescriptions, though.

(BuckRimfire) #6

I like a stunt, so I was mostly curious to see what magnitude the effect would have. Last year I took 10 mg for a little while, and the change in my LDL was not very impressive. Maybe 10%. Right now I’m trying 20 mg, to see what happens.

No myopathy, even with my fairly lame weight training and a little kayaking, but I have been feeling a little bit dazed and dizzy lately. I hope that’s from the medication, and then it goes away soon after I stop the stuff!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #7

You should find that taking a statin will indeed lower your LDL, but the real question is whether that will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease or not. Probably not. The typical reduction in absolute risk is 0.5–1.0 %. In other words, it can reduce your risk of a heart attack from something like 1.2% to something like 0.5%.