Associations of endogenous testosterone and lipid profiles in middle-aged to older Taiwanese men

The relationship between endogenous plasma testosterone and plasma lipids was assessed among 856 Taiwanese men ≧40 years old originally recruited for an epidemiological study of testosterone deficiency syndrome. Blood samples were drawn from fasting (n=562) and non-fasting (n=294) subjects between 0800 to 1100 hours. With adjustment of age, body mass index and sex hormone-binding globulin, the following results were shown: (i) triglyceride (TG) levels were negatively associated with quartile levels of testosterone, and the magnitudes of associations were greater for postprandial TGs than for fasting TGs; (ii) high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were positively related to quartile levels of testosterone, but the associations became insignificant after further control of TGs; and (iii) the calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels were positively associated with quartile levels of testosterone. Similar results were obtained in multivariate linear regression analyses with additional control of hypertension and diabetes. In these Taiwanese men, the favorable association of endogenous plasma testosterone with HDL-C counterbalances the unfavorable association of it with LDL-C, while the net influence of testosterone on plasma lipids for cardiovascular system was still in the beneficial direction due to its negative association with postprandial plasma TG levels.