Submitted on November 7, 2007
Revised on December 5, 2007
Accepted on December 5, 2007
Cellular SR-BI and ABCA1-mediated cholesterol efflux are gender specific in healthy subjects
Giovanna Catalano, Emilie Duchene, Zélie Julia, Wilfried Le Goff, Eric Bruckert, M. John Chapman, and Maryse Guerin
INSERM Unit 551, INSERM, Paris 75651
Corresponding Author: mguerin{at}chups.jussieu.fr
We evaluated the impact of gender differences in both the quantitative and qualitative features of HDL subspecies on cellular free cholesterol (FC) efflux through the SR-BI, ABCA1 or ABCG1 pathways. For that purpose, healthy subjects (30 men and 26 women) matched for age, BMI, triglyceride, apoAI and HDL-cholesterol levels were recruited. We observed a significant elevation (+14%; p<0.03) in the capacity of whole sera from women to mediate cellular FC efflux via the SR-BI-dependent pathway as compared to sera from men. Such enhanced efflux capacity resulted from significant elevation in plasma levels of large CE-rich HDL2 particles (+20%; p<0.04), as well as from an enhanced capacity (+14%; p<0.03) of these particles to mediate cellular FC efflux via SR-BI. By contrast, plasma from men displayed an enhanced FC efflux capacity (+31%; p<0.001) via the ABCA1 transporter pathway as compared to that from women which result from a 2.4-fold increase in plasma level of pre- particles (p<0.008). Moreover in women, SR-BI-mediated cellular FC efflux was significantly correlated with plasma HDL-C (r=0.72; p<0.0001), whereas this relationship was not observed in men. In conclusion, HDL-C level may not represent the absolute indicator of the efficiency of the initial step of the reverse cholesterol transport.
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