Plasma lipoprotein composition in type 2 diabetic patients

In the present study lipoprotein fractions were studied in clinically well-characterized patients with type 2 diabetes. Apart from the usually isolated fractions (VLDL, LDL and HDL) a subfraction of VLDL was studied. This VLDL-subfraction (VLDL-2) has a similar chemical composition to beta-VLDL which has been suggested to be of importance in the development of atherosclerosis. The results shows that obese type 2 diabetic women carry substantial amounts of VLDL-2 (greater than 100% above the level of comparable non-diabetic women), (2p less than 0.01 for cholesterol and triglyceride amounts in VLDL-2). Furthermore obese diabetic women had total plasma cholesterol values 27% higher than non-diabetic obese women (2p less than 0.05). Total plasma triglyceride values were found to be significantly higher in diabetic women compared with non-diabetic women (2p less than 0.01). LDL-cholesterol was found significantly raised in obese diabetic women compared with the corresponding group of non-diabetic women (2p less than 0.05). HDL-cholesterol showed lower values in ideal-weight diabetic women than in ideal-weight non-diabetic women (2p less than 0.05). In summary, the results show that obese women with type 2 diabetes carry high concentrations of lipoprotein fractions which have been incriminated as being of importance in the development of atherosclerosis. This is in accordance with the sex ratio of atherosclerotic disease among diabetic patients compared to the sex ratio in non-diabetic patients.