Features of serum beta-lipoprotein electrophoretogram in patients with coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the changes in serum beta-lipoprotein (beta Lp) electrophoretogram in the patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS:This study included 36 CHD patients, 28 non-CHD patients and 8 normal control subjects, from whom serum beta Lps (prestained with Sudan Black B) were isolated by means of the first double-gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (f-DGPAGE). The secondary DGPAGE was performed for isolating beta Lps into 4 subfractions (beta Lp1-4) in order to complete the quantitative analysis of beta Lp electrophoretogram. A parallel test to examine the serum concentration of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) was also carried out. RESULTS:The relative amount of beta Lp1 was significantly elevated in CHD patients (53.4+/-10.0%) as compared with normal subjects (39.3+/-6.7%) and non-CHD patients (42.8+/-6.8%, P < 0.05 for both comparisons) regardless of serum LDLc concentrations, and beta Lp1 content between the latter 2 groups showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION:Serum beta Lp subfraction imbalance evidenced by increased beta Lp1 level characterizes the patients with CHD.