Aims: Hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL) is an essential enzyme for all lipoprotein metabolism. Recently, a sensitive assay kit for measuring HTGL protein in plasma without using heparin injection (pre-heparin) have become available. We investigated the association between pre-heparin HTGL and lipoprotein subspecies and compared it with lipoprotein lipase (LPL) to explore the clinical relevance of measurements in type 2 diabetes.
Methods: Fasting plasma were obtained from 120 patients with type 2 diabetes. HTGL and LPL concentrations were measured by their respective sandwich ELISA kits. Small dense low-density lipoprotein LDL-cholesterol (sdLDL-C), LDL-triglyceride (TG), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)3-C was measured using the homogenous methods established by us. HDL2-C was calculated by subtracting HDL3-C from HDL-C. Visceral fat area (VFA) was measured by CT scan.
Results: Concentrations of HTGL and LPL were identical; median (interquartile range) were 57(44-74) and 57 (44-70) ng/mL, respectively, and showed a skewed distribution. Gender, age, VFA, and glucose control were not associated with HTGL levels. The higher quartile of HTGL correlated with the higher LDL-C, lower LDL-TG/LDL-C and lower LDL-TG/apolipoprotein B implying TG-depletion of LDL. There were no significant associations of HTGL with remnant-like particle(RLP)-C or subspecies of LDL-C and HDL-C. Pre-heparin LPL inversely correlated with VFA, TG, RLP-C, LDL-TG, and sdLDL-C/LDL-C, and positively correlated with HDL-C and HDL2-C.
Conclusions: Pre-heparin HTGL was only associated with TG-depletion of LDL but not with major lipoprotein subspecies. Pre-heparin HTGL measurements may have limited clinical relevance compared to LPL in diabetic populations.

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A woman in her sixties presented to the dermatology department with erythematous nodules. Seventeen years earlier, she had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and treated with oral prednisolone. Three years later, she was also diagnosed with pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteriosis. Initially, we isolated Mycobacterium intracellulare from the bronchoscopy. However, 8 years later, the bacterial species changed to Mycobacterium abscessus. Skin biopsy was performed, and the culture was positive for Mycobacterium abscessus.

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Editor-in-Chief：Hiroshi Yoshida



Deputy Editor：Tatsuo Shimosawa



Associate Editors


Toru Fujiwara
Teruto Hashiguchi
Taeko Hotta
Gaku Igarashi
Naohito Ishii
Kazuhiko Kotani
Makoto Kurano
Takeyoshi Murano
Atsushi Nagai
Hideki Niimi
Makoto Osada
Kazuhito Ueda
Takeshi Uehara
Yuki Uehara
Naoyuki Yokoyama


Board members

Masato Daimon
Yasushi Furukawa
Yo Hidaka
Satoru Hirayama
Kiyoshi Ichihara
Yoshitsugu Iinuma
Katsue Inoue
Makoto Kaneko
Haruto Kikuchi
Satoshi Kimura
Masahiro Koshiba
Kazuyuki Matsuda
Hiromichi Matsushita
Kazuyuki Matsushita
Toshihiro Mitsuda
Kazunori Miyake
Kenta Morikane
Masami Murakami
Tomohiro Nakayama
Hiroaki Onishi
Asako Sato
Shoichi Sato
Naoto Shimetani
Masamune Shimo
Kenichi Shukuya
Kaoru Toyama
Takashi Wada
Masatoshi Wakui
Toshiyuki Yamada
Kazuyoshi Yamauchi
Katsunori Yanagihara
Yutaka Yatomi
Takashi Yoneda
Masato Yumoto

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