Relationship between Plasma Lipidomics and Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Background: </jats:bold>The rapidly growing discipline of lipidomics allows the study of a wide spectrum of lipid species in human plasma and provides new insights into the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. <jats:bold>Objective: </jats:bold>To explore the roles of plasma lipid components in relation to atherosclerotic plaques.<jats:bold>Methods:</jats:bold> Ten non-symptomatic persons (age 62.42±3.45) with 2 or more carotid plaques (soft or mixed) and ten apparently healthy controls without any carotid plaque (age 62.82±4.38), were randomly selected as cases and controls from a community-based sample of 1312 persons. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-QTOF MS)-based lipidomics was used to measure lipid components. The difference of lipid species between cases and controls was analyzed by t-test and general linear regression. <jats:bold>Results:</jats:bold> Among 53 lipid components, significantly elevated plasma levels of one novel individual ceramide species (ceramide 22: 0) were observed in cases compared to the controls (0.59±0.18 versus 0.41±0.10μg/mL, p values&lt;0.05). After adjusting for confounding factors, such as total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the results remained significant (p&lt;0.05). 22:0 ceramide was significantly negatively correlated with vegetable intake (r=-0.74, p=0.014).<jats:bold>Conclusion</jats:bold>: High level of plasma ceramide 22:0 may be a novel risk factor for carotid atherosclerosis in human which independent of cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, it deserves future studies with larger sample size to confirm.</jats:p>