Reduced Apolipoprotein Glycosylation in Patients with the Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the apolipoprotein composition of the three major lipoprotein classes in patients with metabolic syndrome to healthy controls. METHODS: Very low density (VLDL), intermediate/low density (IDL/LDL, hereafter LDL), and high density lipoproteins (HDL) fractions were isolated from plasma of 56 metabolic syndrome subjects and from 14 age-sex matched healthy volunteers. The apolipoprotein content of fractions was analyzed by one-dimensional (1D) gel electrophoresis with confirmation by a combination of mass spectrometry and biochemical assays. RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome patients differed from healthy controls in the following ways: (1) total plasma - apoA1 was lower, whereas apoB, apoC2, apoC3, and apoE were higher; (2) VLDL - apoB, apoC3, and apoE were increased; (3) LDL - apoC3 was increased, (4) HDL -associated constitutive serum amyloid A protein (SAA4) was reduced (p<0.05 vs. controls for all). In patients with metabolic syndrome, the most extensively glycosylated (di-sialylated) isoform of apoC3 was reduced in VLDL, LDL, and HDL fractions by 17%, 30%, and 25%, respectively (p<0.01 vs. controls for all). Similarly, the glycosylated isoform of apoE was reduced in VLDL, LDL, and HDL fractions by 15%, 26%, and 37% (p<0.01 vs. controls for all). Finally, glycosylated isoform of SAA4 in HDL fraction was 42% lower in patients with metabolic syndrome compared with controls (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with metabolic syndrome displayed several changes in plasma apolipoprotein composition consistent with hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL cholesterol levels. Reduced glycosylation of apoC3, apoE and SAA4 are novel findings, the pathophysiological consequences of which remain to be determined.