The association of HDL-apoCIII with coronary heart disease and the effect of statin treatment on it

BACKGROUND: Apolipoprotein CIII (apoCIII) is considered to impair the anti-atherogenic effect of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients, and apoCIII content in HDL (HDL-apoCIII) predicts CHD more accurately. However, the relationship between HDL-apoCIII and CHD, and the effect of statin treatment on HDL-apoCIII are still unclear. The aims of the study are to establish the association of HDL-apoCIII with CHD, and investigate the effect of statin treatment on HDL-apoCIII in CHD patients. METHODS: We conducted a hospital-based observational study. Totally 80 non-CHD patients and 120 CHD patients without statin treatment were previously enrolled in this study. All the CHD patients received statin treatment, and 63 of them were followed after 3 months of regular statin treatment. HDL sample of each patient was isolated by density gradient ultracentrifugation from fasting venous plasma, and HDL-apoCIII of each patient was measured by ELISA method. RESULTS: HDL-apoCIII was significantly higher in CHD patients than non-CHD patients (p < 0.05), and it was still an independent predictor of CHD after adjusting for other factors. Total plasma apoCIII, especially HDL-apoCIII was significantly elevated after statin treatment in CHD patients, whereas total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and apolipoprotein B (apoB) were decreased significantly (p < 0.05). Compared with CHD patients without diabetes mellitus (DM), the effect of statin treatment on apoCIII markers was minor in CHD patients with DM. And HDL-apoCIII correlated with plasma TG significantly in non-CHD and CHD patients (p < 0.05), but the correlation in CHD patients did not exist after statin treatment (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HDL-apoCIII has a significant and positive association with CHD. Although conventional atherogenic lipid markers have a significantly decrease in CHD patients after statin treatment, HDL-apoCIII has a further elevation at the same time. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12944-015-0129-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.