Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC) of serum samples from patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and to analyse the serum lipid subfractions of the lipidomics data obtained by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
Methods :
CEC of the serum and their routine lipoprotein profiles were analysed in control, early AMD, typical neovascular AMD (tAMD), and PCV groups and lipid subfractions were measured using NMR analysis in control, early AMD, and PCV samples (Nightingale Ltd, Helsinki, Finland). Analysis of covariance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare the baseline characteristics and routine lipoprotein profiles of the serum samples among the four groups. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the difference in CEC between the four groups. Associations between CEC and the lipid subfractions were examined by Pearson correlation coefficien. P<0.05 was considered to be significant.
Results :
Mean (SD) ages were similar across four groups (controls, 66.7 (8.5); eAMD, 67.1 (9.3); tAMD, 69.4 (7.9); PCV, 68.3 (9.2) years old: P=0.1515). Early AMD and PCV had a significantly higher CEC than controls, while that of tAMD was comparable with controls after adjusting for age, gender, and use of lipid lowering drug (P<.0001). CEC in PCV was higher than early AMD (P<.0001). Using conventional lipid biochemistry, tAMD and PCV had higher levels of HDL and LDL cholesterols compared with controls (P<.02), although there was no significant difference of those between tAMD and PCV (P>.05). NMR lipidomics demonstrated that mean diameter of HDL and LDL was larger and that of VLDL was smaller in PCV compared to control. In early AMD, the diameter of HDL was higher, whereas the diameter of LDL and VLDL was not different from controls. Lipid subfraction analysis showed that the concentrations of large and medium HDLs and large and medium VLDLs as well as the ratio of ApoB to ApoA1, were significantly associated with PCV (P<.00022). However, extra-large HDL and small VLDL were not associated with PCV (P≥.00022).
Conclusions :
CEC of the serum samples was higher in PCV and early AMD than controls, while that of typical AMD was comparable to controls. Additionally, the lipid subfractions (especially HDL subfractions) were altered in PCV, suggesting that especially HDL among all lipids has a role in the pathogenesis of PCV.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.