Aim: To clarify the clinical significance of small,dense LDL (sLDL) in the metabolic syndrome associated with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: One hundred and ten healthy non-diabetic and non-metabolic syndrome subjects (58 male/52 female), 77 non-metabolic diabetic subjects (62/15), 58 non-diabetic metabolic subjects (25/33), and 46 metabolic diabetic subjects (29/17) were enrolled in this study.
Results: The subjects with metabolic syndrome (both with and without type 2 diabetes) had significantly higher fasting blood glucose, total-cholesterol (C), LDL-C, triglyceride, sLDL-C and hs-CRP levels than non-metabolic and non-diabetic subjects. HDL-C levels were significantly decreased in the former compared to the latter. Among the metabolic syndrome subjects, those with type 2 diabetes had significantly higher fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure and hs-CRP values than those without diabetes. sLDL-C, LDL-C and hs-CRP were the highest and HDL-C was lowest in the metabolic syndrome with diabetes group. A multiple regression analysis revealed the most significant determinant of sLDL-C to be LDL-C, followed by HDL-C, total-C, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and triglyceride.
Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is a significant determinant of the plasma sLDL-C level. Hs-CRP was the highest in the metabolic syndrome patients with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, type 2 diabetes may further increase the risk of coronary artery disease in the metabolic syndrome subjects through cardiovascular inflammation.