Lipid metabolism: the significance of plasma proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 in the elucidation of complex lipid disorders.

摘要

Patients who are referred to an outpatient lipid clinic often present with a lipid disorder that is complex in origin, that is it is the consequence of the interaction between multiple susceptibility genes and environmental factors (e.g. alcohol, diet and physical inactivity). Diabetic dyslipidemia and familial combined hyperlipidemia are examples of highly prevalent complex lipid disorders . Despite our increased knowledge of lipid metabolism, the exact underlying causes of these complex lipid disorders have remained unsolved. One complicating factor is that stable isotope studies - the golden standard for examining lipid metabolism in humans - are elaborate and expensive in nature and are therefore limited to a small number of individuals. Moreover, many tissues that play an important role in lipid metabolism, in particular the liver, are not easily accessible for human research. Such issues could, at least in part, be overcome by the use of biomarkers that reflect specific tissue processes and can routinely be measured in plasma in large populations.