Toward reliable low-density lipoprotein ultrastructure prediction in clinical conditions: A small-angle X-ray scattering study on individuals with normal and high triglyceride serum levels

Atherosclerosis is the main killer in west and therefore a major health challenge today. Total serum cholesterol lipoprotein concentrations, used as clinical markers, fail to predict majority of cases, especially between risk scale extremes, due high complexity structure composition. In particular, low-density (LDL) plays key role atherosclerosis development, with LDL size being parameter considered for determining cardiovascular diseases. Determining structural parameters challenging address experimentally under physiological-like conditions. This article describes biochemistry ultrastructure normolipidemic hypertriglyceridemic fractions subfractions using small-angle X-ray scattering. Our results conclude that particles compared healthy individuals 1) have lower core melting temperature, 2) cholesteryl ester ordering their core, 3) are smaller, rounder more spherical below 4) protein-containing shell thinner above temperature.