Discovery of HDL Subspecies and Investigation of Their Associations With Insulin Sensitivity and Early Carotid Atherosclerosis

by Rain Yamamoto

Recent findings from genome-wide association studies and pharmaceutical trials of CETP inhibitors suggest that HDL cholesterol might not fully capture the anti-atherogenic functions of HDL. The protein component of HDL might be more informative in explaining HDL functions because proteins have characteristics that can modify the biological properties of HDL. In Chapter 1, I examined whether some proteins located in the HDL size or density range by proteomics studies were present in distinct apoA-I HDL subspecies that could be identified and quantified by a novel sandwich ELISA. Known HDL...