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 mu L of the injected volume in 5.2min 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] <120mg/dL and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) 40mg/dL; Group 2, borderline dyslipidemia with 120LDL-C<140mg/dL and HDL-C 40mg/dL; Group 3, dyslipidemia with LDL-C140mg/dL or HDL-C<40mg/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.