Abstract
We studied serum lipoprotein A-I levels (LpA-I) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and the changes of LpA-I levels after therapies. LpA-I levels were measured by the immuno-turbidimetric assay method after the removal of apo lipoprotein A-II by the use of immuno-ad-sorption. The effects of therapy on serum LpA-I levels were also compared among the groups of patients having diabetes with polydisperse LDL and monodisperse LDL. In the type 2 diabetics, the LpA-I levels were lower than those in normal subjects (p<0.001), while the LpA-I levels in type 2 diabetics with polydisperse LDL were lower than those with monodisperse LDL. After the therapy, LpA-I levels became significantly higher than those in patients before therapies (p<0.05), whereas the levels of diabetic markers such as glucose, glycohemoglobin, lipids, and apolipoproteins were not changed. The determination of serum LpA-I levels seemed to be very useful for the estimation of clinical prognosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with polydisperse LDL.
