SERUM-LIPIDS AND LIPOPROTEINS ARE CORRELATED TO SKIN VESSEL REACTIVITY IN HEALTHY WOMEN

Objectives. To investigate whether serum lipids and lipoproteins are c orrelated to the results of skin vessel reactivity tests, Design. Heal thy, non-smoking individuals of various ages without atopic constituti on and medication were selected for the study. Setting. Subjects blood sampled and examined with iontophoresis and a newly developed laser D oppler perfusion imager at Huddinge University Hospital. Subjects. Thi rteen men, 20-80 years of age, and 21 women, 18-76 years of age, who f ulfilled the inclusion criteria. Main outcome measures. Normalized per fusion values (%) after iontophoresis of acetylcholine (ACh), nitropru sside and isoprenaline. Fasting concentrations of total cholesterol, h igh-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride values. Results. Skin vessel reactivity tests to ACh and isoprenaline, and to a lesser extent, nitroprusside were positively correlated to high-density lipop rotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (P = 0.014, 0.005 and 0.113, respect ively), and negatively correlated to both the ratio of total cholester ol/HDL-C (P = 0.029, 0.011, 0.005) and the level of triglycerides (P = 0.045, 0.011, 0.005) in young and middle-aged women. There was also a negative correlation between isoprenaline and triglycerides (P = 0.04 2) in elderly women, No correlations between serum lipids and lipoprot eins and skin vessel reactivity were found in men. Conclusions. The re sults of the study suggest that serum lipids and lipoproteins, primari ly HDL-C, influence skin vessel reactivity in healthy women. Furthermo re, HDL-C seems to influence the function of the vascular smooth muscl e as well as the endothelium.