Variability of the Plasma Lipidome and Subclinical Coronary Atherosclerosis

Sock Hwee Tan, Hiromi W.L. Koh, Jing Yi Chua, Bo Burla, Ching Ching Ong, Li San Lynette Teo, Xiaoxun Yang, Peter I. Benke, Hyungwon Choi, Federico Torta, A. Mark Richards, Markus R. Wenk*, Mark Y. Chan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: While the risk of acute coronary events has been associated with biological variability of circulating cholesterol, the association with variability of other atherogenic lipids remains less understood. We evaluated the longitudinal variability of 284 lipids and investigated their association with asymptomatic coronary atherosclerosis. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Circulating lipids were extracted from fasting blood samples of 83 community-sampled symptom-free participants (age 41-75 years), collected longitudinally over 6 months. Three types of coronary plaque volume (calcified, lipid-rich, and fibrotic) were quantified using computed tomography coronary angiogram. We first deconvoluted between-subject (CVg) and within-subject (CVw) lipid variabilities. We then tested whether the mean lipid abundance was different across groups categorized by Framingham risk score and plaques phenotypes (lipid-rich, fibrotic, and calcified). Finally, we investigated whether visit-to-visit variability of each lipid was associated with plaque burden. Most lipids (72.5%) exhibited higher CVg than CVw. Among the lipids (n=145) with 1.2-fold higher CVg than CVw, 26 species including glycerides and ceramides were significantly associated with Framingham risk score and the 3 plaque phenotypes (false discovery rate <0.05). In an exploratory analysis of person-specific visit-to-visit variability without multiple testing correction, high variability of 3 lysophospholipids (lysophosphatidylethanolamines 16:0, 18:0, and lysophosphatidylcholine O-18:1) was associated with lipid-rich and fibrotic (noncalcified) plaque volume while high variability of diacylglycerol 18:1_20:0, triacylglycerols 52:2, 52:3, and 52:4, ceramide d18:0/20:0, dihexosylceramide d18:1/16:0, and sphingomyelin 36:3 was associated with calcified plaque volume. CONCLUSIONS: High person-specific longitudinal variation of specific nonsterol lipids is associated with the burden of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. Larger studies are needed to confirm these exploratory findings. GRAPHIC ABSTRACT: A graphic abstract is available for this article.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)100-112
Number of pages13
JournalArteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology
Volume42
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Atherosclerotic plaque
  • Coronary angiography
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Lipidomics
  • Mass spectrometry

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