High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Efflux, Nitration of Apolipoprotein A-I, and Endothelial Function in Obese Women》.pdf

High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Efflux, Nitration of Apolipoprotein A-I, and Endothelial Function in Obese Women Edward Vazquez, MD, Amar A. Sethi, MD, PhD, Lita Freeman, PhD, Gloria Zalos, RN, Hira Chaudhry, BS, Erin Haser, BS, Brittany O. Aicher, BS, Angel Aponte, PhD, Marjan Gucek, PhD, Gregory J. Kato, MD, PhD, Myron A. Waclawiw, PhD, Alan T. Remaley, MD, PhD, and Richard O. Cannon III, MD* Subjects at risk of atherosclerosis might have dysfunctional high-density lipoprotein (HDL) despite normal cholesterol content in the plasma. We considered whether the efflux of excess cellular cholesterol to HDL from obese subjects is associated with impaired arterial endothelial function, a biomarker of cardiovascular risk. A total of 54 overweight (body 2 2 mass index [BMI] 25 to 29.9 kg/m ) or obese (BMI 30 kg/m ) women, aged 46 11 years, were enrolled in a worksite wellness program. The HDL cholesterol averaged 57 17 mg/dl and was inversely associated with the BMI (r 0.419, p 0.002). Endothelial function was assessed using brachial artery flow-mediated dilation. Cholesterol efflux from 3H- cholesterol–labeled baby hamster kidney cells transfected with the adenosine triphosphate- binding cassette transporter 1 showed 8.2% to 22.5% cholesterol efflux within 18 hours when incubated with 1% serum and was positively correlated with brachial artery flow- mediated dilation (p 0.05), especially in the 34 subjects with BMI 30 kg/m2 (r 0.482, p 0.004). This relation was independent of age, HDL or low-d