MONOCYTES FROM PATIENTS WITH COMBINED HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA-HYPERTRIGLYCERIDEMIA AND ISOLATED HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA SHOW AN INCREASED ADHESION TO ENDOTHELIAL-CELLS IN-VITRO .2. INFLUENCE OF INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC FACTORS ON MONOCYTE BINDING

One of the primary risk factors for atherosclerosis is hypercholestero lemia. Patients with isolated hypercholesterolemia or combined hyperch olesterolemia-hypertriglyceridemia are at risk to develop premature at herosclerosis. Diet induced hypercholesterolemia in animals leads to a n increased adhesion of monocytes to and transmigration through the in tact endothelium of the vessel wall. In the present study, we investig ated in vitro binding of freshly isolated monocytes from patients and healthy controls to a monolayer of endothelial cells obtained from hum an umbilical vein. All four diagnosed patient groups with isolated or combined hypercholesterolemia showed a significant increase in monocyt e binding as compared with the control group (familiar hypercholestero lemia [FH], +41%; polygenic hypercholesterolemia [PH] +35%; familial c ombined hypercholesterolemia [FCH], +47%; nonfamilial combined hyperch olesterolemia-hypertriglyceridemi [CHH], +67%). In a longitudinal stud y it was observed that diet or medication induced a decrease in choles terol and triglycerides; however, these therapeutic conditions did not diminish in vitro monocyte binding in the patient groups. There was n o correlation between monocyte binding and plasma cholesterol, low-den sity lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cho lesterol, triglycerides, or lipoprotein(a) within hyperlipidemic patie nt groups. The presence of heart and vessel disease in hyperlipidemic patients was not associated with a change in monocyte binding. The adh esion to endothelial cells of monocytes from smoking patients with com bined hypercholesterolemia (27%) was significantly higher (+23%) than that of monocytes from nonsmoking patients. Cytofluorimetric analysis of monocytes from FCH and CHH patients for specific monocyte different iation markers and integrins did not show differences as compared with monocytes from healthy controls. Copyright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company