THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ELECTROPHORETIC MOBILITY OF LIPOPROTEINSAND CORONARY HEART-DISEASE

Low density lipoproteins (LDL) in patients with coronary atheroscleros is have a substantially lower content of sialic acid when compared wit h the LDL from healthy subjects. Desialylated LDL have smaller sizes a nd greater electrophoretic mobilities than sialylated ones. Desialylat ed LDL may be responsible for the accelerated development of foam cell s in atherosclerosis. In the present study, we investigated a relation ship between the electrophoretic mobility of lipoproteins and the numb er of significantly obstructed vessels in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Our findings indicate that when the number of signific antly obstructed vessels is increased, the electrophoretic mobility of lipoproteins is high. We also investigated the possible role of serum sialidase activity on lipoprotein desialylation in patients with coro nary heart disease. In patients with single vessel disease (p < 0.01) and double-triple vessel disease (p < 0.001) the mean serum sialidase activity was significantly higher than in the control group.