Relationship of metabolic control and body weight to hypercholesterolemia in NIDDM patients with apolipoprotein E4.

Abstract

We previously reported that non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients with apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) are more susceptible to hypercholesterolemia. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether metabolic control or body weight is related to hypercholesterolemia in NIDDM patients with apoE4. Two hundred forty NIDDM patients with apoE4 or apoE3/3 who had either hypercholesterolemia or normolipidemia were studied. ApoE phenotypes were determined by isoelectric focusing method. The apoE4-carrying NIDDM patients with hypercholesterolemia (n = 39) showed significantly higher fasting plasma glucose (8.4 vs. 7.2 mM, P less than 0.05), HbA1 (9.3 vs. 8.1%, P less than 0.05), and percentage of ideal body weight values (116 vs. 102%, P less than 0.01) than the apoE4-carrying NIDDM patients with normolipidemia (n = 26), whereas there was no significant difference in their levels between the apoE3/3-carrying NIDDM patients with hypercholesterolemia (n = 47) and normolipidemia (n = 128). In addition to our previous finding, this study indicates that hypercholesterolemia in apoE4-carrying NIDDM patients may be more closely related to poor metabolic control and increased percentage of ideal body weight.