LOW AND VERY-LOW-DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN COMPOSITION AND RESISTANCE TO COPPER-INDUCED OXIDATION ARE NOT NOTABLY MODIFIED IN SMOKERS

To study whether tobacco use was associated with oxidative phenomena a ffecting lipoproteins, we estimated susceptibility of LDL and VLDL to an in vitro copper-mediated oxidation, and measured serum autoantibody titers against oxidized LDL in 45 middle-age healthy nonsmokers, 35 s mokers and 37 ex-smokers of both sexes, taking into account the detail ed lipid composition of the lipoproteins. VLDL from female smokers had higher triglyceride, phospholipid, apolipoprotein E and alpha-tocophe rol content and showed a higher rate of copper-induced oxidation in co mparison with those from nonsmokers (P less than or equal to 0.05) whe reas the relative composition of these particles in saturated, mono- o r poly-unsaturated fatty acids was not modified by tobacco consumption . After adjustment for triglyceride content, no statistically signific ant difference in oxidation rate was observed. Lipid, alpha-tocopherol and protein composition of LDL did not appear to be influenced by smo king; in accordance with these observations, no difference in indices of in vitro oxidizability of LDL was noticed between the different gro ups, Autoantibody titers against oxLDL were similar in smokers and non smokers. We conclude that, in supposed healthy individuals, smoking do es not seem to be associated with notable variations in composition of VLDL and LDL or with an increase of oxidizability of these atherogeni c lipoproteins. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.