| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
From the Clinical Research Centers |
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305; Tokyo Medical Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan; and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., Rockville, Maryland 20850
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: G. M. Reaven, M.D., 213 East Grand Avenue, South San Francisco, California 94080. E-mail: greaven{at}shaman.com
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
60
µU/mL), and the higher the SSPG concentrations, the more insulin
resistant the individual. By selection, mean (±SEM) SSPG
concentrations were significantly higher (P <
0.001) in the insulin-resistant group (210 ± 7 vs.
78 ± 3 mg/dL). In addition, the insulin-resistant group had
higher triglycerides (198 ± 27 vs. 101 ± 12
mg/dL; P < 0.005) and lower high density
lipoprotein cholesterol (48 ± 4 vs. 60 ± 4
mg/dL; P < 0.05) concentrations. Finally, insulin
resistance was associated with higher remnant lipoprotein particle
concentrations of cholesterol (7.2 ± 0.8 vs.
4.4 ± 0.3; P < 0.005) and triglycerides
(22.2 ± 3.4 vs. 8.5 ± 1.0;
P < 0.001). All of these differences were seen
despite the fact that the two groups were similar in terms of age and
body mass index. These results identify additional abnormalities in
lipoprotein metabolism that may contribute to the increased risk of
coronary heart disease seen in insulin-resistant, nondiabetic subjects
(syndrome X). | Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Our ability to evaluate the atherogenic potential of TG-rich lipoproteins has increased with the introduction of an assay method for quantifying apolipoprotein E (apoE)-rich lipoproteins (density, <1.006 g/mL) using an immunoaffinity gel mixture of anti apoB-100 and apoA-1 antibodies coupled to Sepharose (9, 10). Characterization of the unbound lipoproteins isolated in this manner indicated that they represent chylomicron and very low density lipoprotein remnants, collectively called remnant lipoprotein particles (RLP). Using this technique, evidence has recently been published (11) showing that RLP cholesterol (C) and RLP-TG concentrations were significantly higher after an overnight fast in subjects with type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) than in subjects with either normal glucose tolerance or impaired fasting plasma glucose as defined by the American Diabetes Association (12). As patients with impaired fasting plasma glucose and IGT are relatively similar in terms of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (13), the results of this recent study suggested that the increases in RLP-C and RLP-TG were more a function of increases in the degree of glycemia than either insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia.
Given the great possibility that plasma concentrations of RLPs are important risk factors for CHD, we believed it important to further evaluate the impact of differences in insulin resistance, plasma glucose concentration, and plasma insulin concentration on the fasting plasma concentration of RLP-C and RLP-TG. For this purpose, we have compared the concentrations of these two variables in healthy, normal glucose-tolerant volunteers, defined as being either insulin resistant or sensitive, but matched for all other relevant variables.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Patients were admitted to the General Clinical Research Center of Stanford Medical Center after informed consent had been obtained. Insulin-mediated glucose disposal was evaluated by a modification (14) of the insulin suppression test as initially described by our laboratory (15, 16). Briefly, an iv catheter was placed in each of the patients arms. Blood was sampled from 1 arm for measurement of plasma glucose and insulin concentrations, and the contralateral arm was used for administration of test substances. Sandostatin (octreotide acetate) was administered at the rate of 0.27 µg/m2·min to suppress endogenous insulin secretion. Simultaneously, insulin and glucose were infused at rates of 32 mU/m2·min and 267 mg/m2·min, respectively. Blood was sampled every 30 min until 150 min into the study and then every 10 min until 180 min had elapsed. The four values obtained from 150180 min were averaged and considered to represent the steady state plasma glucose (SSPG) and insulin concentrations achieved during the infusion. Because steady state plasma insulin concentrations are comparable in all individuals, SSPG concentrations provide a direct estimate of insulin-mediated glucose disposal in each individual: the lower the SSPG, the more insulin sensitive the individual. Volunteers with SSPG concentration values below 100 mg/dL were called insulin sensitive, and those with SSPG values above 160 mg/dL were insulin resistant. This somewhat arbitrary cut-off value was chosen based on unpublished data showing that one third of about 400 healthy volunteers will have an SSPG concentration greater than 160 mg/dL. Volunteers with SSPG concentrations between 100160 mg/dL were excluded from further study. In this manner we were able to compare 2 groups dichotomous for insulin resistance.
Plasma was separated from blood samples obtained after an overnight fast the morning of the insulin suppression test, immediately frozen, and maintained at -70° until all the samples could be measured in one assay. Concentrations of TG, C, and high density lipoprotein (HDL)-C were determined as described previously (6, 7, 8). Chylomicron and VLDL remnant lipoprotein particles were isolated by an immunoseparation method (9, 10), using monoclonal antibodies to apoA-1 and apoB-100 that recognize TG-rich lipoproteins containing apoB-48 and a population of apoB-100 enriched in apoE. Briefly, plasma is added to an immunoaffinity gel suspension containing the two monoclonal antibodies, and the reaction mixture was shaken for 60 min at room temperature, then left to stand for 10 min. Aliquots of the supernatant were then taken for the measurement of RLP-C and RLP-TG concentrations.
Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Statistical analyses were conducted using Systat 7.0 package for Windows (Systat, Evanston, IL). Means of two groups were compared with Students nonpaired t test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. A logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between insulin resistance (SSPG), and RLP-TG and RLP-C concentrations. Insulin-resistant and -sensitive groups were dummy-coded and used as the dependent variable. Fasting TG, HDL-C, RLP-TG, and RLP-C were entered into the regression model as independent variables.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
2 value for the model was 14.3
(P = 0.0008). We then added RLP-TG to TG and HDL-C
(panel 2), and it was seen that RLP-TG predicted insulin resistance
independent of TG and HDL-C (P = 0.05). The
2 value for the model with the three variables
together was 19.4 (P = 0.0002). When RLP-TG was
replaced with RLP-C in the same model (panel 3), none of the three
variables had P < 0.05. However, the
2 value for this model was 17.3
(P = 0.0006). The P values for all three
variables were borderline small, and RLP-C was the most significant
(P = 0.12) variable. | Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Our results are quite different from the findings of Watanabe et al. (11), in that an increase in RLP-C and RLP-TG concentrations was not dependent upon the presence of states of abnormal glucose tolerance. However, the conclusion that increases in RLP-C and RLP-TG are not a simple function of elevated plasma glucose concentrations is also implicit in the report by Watanabe and associates (11). They reported essentially identical values for the two variables in patients with IGT and type 2 diabetes despite the fact that the glycosylated hemoglobin concentration was 1.7% higher in those with type 2 diabetes. Their report contains further evidence that hyperglycemia per se is unlikely to be an important modular of remnant lipoproteins, in that the hemoglobin A1c concentrations were quite similar in the normal and IGT groups (4.8% vs. 5.0%), yet those with IGT had significantly higher concentrations of RLP-C and RLP-TG.
Based upon our results as well as those of Watanabe et al. (11), it seems most likely that insulin resistance and/or hypertriglyceridemia are the major determinants of whether there will be an increase in the concentrations of plasma remnant lipoproteins after an overnight fast. This conclusion is based upon the following considerations: 1) insulin resistance is characteristic of patients with IGT and type 2 diabetes (16, 17, 18, 19) and was the selection criterion for the group in our study with the high RLP-C and RLP-TG concentrations; 2) plasma TG concentrations were increased in those groups with elevated concentrations of remnant lipoproteins in both studies; 3) RLP-C and RLP-TG concentrations can be elevated in the absence of increases in plasma glucose concentration; and 4) plasma insulin concentrations are elevated in insulin-resistant, nondiabetic volunteers (20, 21), and individuals with IGT (22), but not in patients with type 2 diabetes (23, 24).
The suggestion that insulin resistance is the major determinant of
increases in plasma concentrations of remnant lipoproteins is
consistent with a recent study of ours (7) documenting a highly
significant relationship between insulin resistance and magnitude of
postprandial lipemia. More specifically, we were able to demonstrate in
37 healthy, nondiabetic volunteers the presence of highly significant
correlations between the magnitude of insulin resistance and the
postprandial lipemic response to meals, whether assessed by the plasma
concentration of all TG-rich lipoproteins or only those of intestinal
origin. Furthermore, by ultracentrifugation analysis, it was apparent
that this relationship involved VLDL, chylomicrons, and their remnants.
Although the experimental protocol and the method of quantifying
remnant lipoprotein particles were different in the current study and
our previous publication (7), the results of both support the idea that
the accumulation of remnant lipoproteins in plasma is closely
associated with insulin resistance. Furthermore, the results of the
logistic regression analysis shown in Table 2
demonstrated that the relationship
between insulin resistance and RLP-TG was independent of plasma TG and
HDL-C concentrations. The relationship between SSPG and RLP-C was less
powerful, consistent with the view that insulin resistance affects the
catabolism of the TG in the RLP.
|
The availability of a technique that permits measurement of remnant lipoproteins provides another approach to assessing the importance of TG-rich lipoproteins as risk factors for CHD. It is a story that began approximately 40 yr ago with the publication by Albrink and Man of the association between CHD and hypertriglyceridemia (25). Although multiple publications have documented the presence of a univariate relationship between high plasma TG concentrations and CHD, the importance of hypertriglyceridemia as a CHD risk factor has been discounted on the basis of the difficulty of defining an independent relationship between hypertriglyceridemia and CHD with the use of multiple variate analysis (26). The appropriateness of this approach has been questioned by Austin (26), who also recently pointed out that an independent relationship between CHD and hypertriglyceridemia can be discerned (27).
More recently, attention has shifted from the idea that an increase in the plasma TG concentration is the cause of CHD to the view that it is only a surrogate marker. In this context, there is evidence that subjects with an increase in fasting plasma TG concentrations have smaller and denser LDL particles (28) and an enhanced degree of postprandial lipemia (29). Both of these changes have also been identified as CHD risk factors (2, 3, 4, 5, 28) and offer alternative explanations to account for the association of hypertriglyceridemia and CHD. Finally, attention has recently focused on the possibility that chylomicron and VLDL remnants are the atherogenic lipoproteins in patients with hypertriglyceridemia (10, 30).
In conclusion, results have been presented demonstrating that RLP-C and RLP-TG concentrations are increased in insulin-resistant individuals with normal glucose tolerance. These data permit us to add this abnormality of lipoprotein metabolism to the previously documented relationship between insulin resistance and 1) fasting hypertriglyceridemia (31), 2) lower HDL-C concentrations (17), 3) smaller and denser LDL particles (32), and 4) an accentuated degree of postprandial lipemia (7). All of these changes have been identified as risk factors for CHD (2, 3, 4, 5, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33, 34). Although the details of the relationships between these various forms of dyslipidemia and insulin resistance remain to be understood, their existence strongly supports the view that a defect in insulin-mediated glucose disposal plays a major role in increasing risk of CHD.
| Footnotes |
|---|
Received April 8, 1999.
Revised June 14, 1999.
Accepted July 2, 1999.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
G. M. Reaven The Individual Components of the Metabolic Syndrome: Is There a Raison d'Etre? J. Am. Coll. Nutr., June 1, 2007; 26(3): 191 - 195. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
G. M Reaven The metabolic syndrome: is this diagnosis necessary? Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, June 1, 2006; 83(6): 1237 - 1247. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. H. Xiang, M. Kawakubo, S. L. Kjos, and T. A. Buchanan Long-acting injectable progestin contraception and risk of type 2 diabetes in latino women with prior gestational diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care, March 1, 2006; 29(3): 613 - 617. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
G. Reaven Counterpoint: Just Being Alive Is Not Good Enough Clin. Chem., August 1, 2005; 51(8): 1354 - 1357. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. Lofgren, K. Herron, T. Zern, K. West, M. Patalay, N. S. Shachter, S. I. Koo, and M. L. Fernandez Waist Circumference Is a Better Predictor than Body Mass Index of Coronary Heart Disease Risk in Overweight Premenopausal Women J. Nutr., May 1, 2004; 134(5): 1071 - 1076. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. J. Nieves, M. Cnop, B. Retzlaff, C. E. Walden, J. D. Brunzell, R. H. Knopp, and S. E. Kahn The Atherogenic Lipoprotein Profile Associated With Obesity and Insulin Resistance Is Largely Attributable to Intra-Abdominal Fat Diabetes, January 1, 2003; 52(1): 172 - 179. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Haidari, N. Leung, F. Mahbub, K. D. Uffelman, R. Kohen-Avramoglu, G. F. Lewis, and K. Adeli Fasting and Postprandial Overproduction of Intestinally Derived Lipoproteins in an Animal Model of Insulin Resistance. EVIDENCE THAT CHRONIC FRUCTOSE FEEDING IN THE HAMSTER IS ACCOMPANIED BY ENHANCED INTESTINAL DE NOVO LIPOGENESIS AND ApoB48-CONTAINING LIPOPROTEIN OVERPRODUCTION J. Biol. Chem., August 23, 2002; 277(35): 31646 - 31655. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Ai, A. Tanaka, K. Ogita, M. Sekinc, F. Numano, F. Numano, and G. M. Reaven Relationship between plasma insulin concentration and plasma remnant lipoprotein response to an oral fat load in patients with type 2 diabetes J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., November 15, 2001; 38(6): 1628 - 1632. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
H.-S. Kim, F. Abbasi, C. Lamendola, T. McLaughlin, and G. M Reaven Effect of insulin resistance on postprandial elevations of remnant lipoprotein concentrations in postmenopausal women Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, November 1, 2001; 74(5): 592 - 595. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Fukushima, A. Taniguchi, Y. Nakai, M. Sakai, K. Doi, K. Nin, T. Oguma, S. Nagasaka, K. Tokuyama, and Y. Seino Remnant-Like Particle Cholesterol and Insulin Resistance in Nonobese Nonhypertensive Japanese Glucose-Tolerant Relatives of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Diabetes Care, September 1, 2001; 24(9): 1691 - 1694. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Ai, A. Tanaka, K. Ogita, M. Sekine, F. Numano, F. Numano, and G. M. Reaven Relationship between Hyperinsulinemia and Remnant Lipoprotein Concentrations in Patients with Impaired Glucose Tolerance J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., October 1, 2000; 85(10): 3557 - 3560. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Endocrinology | Endocrine Reviews | J. Clin. End. & Metab. |
| Molecular Endocrinology | Recent Prog. Horm. Res. | All Endocrine Journals |