Serum lipids and lipoproteins are correlated to skin vessel reactivity in healthy women

Objectives. To investigate whether serum lipids and lipoproteins are correlated to the results of skin vessel reactivity tests, Design. Healthy, non-smoking individuals of various ages without atopic constitution and medication were selected for the study. Setting. Subjects blood sampled and examined with iontophoresis and a newly developed laser Doppler perfusion imager at Huddinge University Hospital. Subjects. Thirteen men, 20-80 years of age, and 21 women, 18-76 years of age, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Main outcome measures. Normalized perfusion values (%) after iontophoresis of acetylcholine (ACh), nitroprusside and isoprenaline. Fasting concentrations of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride values. Results. Skin vessel reactivity tests to ACh and isoprenaline, and to a lesser extent, nitroprusside were positively correlated to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (P = 0.014, 0.005 and 0.113, respectively), and negatively correlated to both the ratio of total cholesterol/HDL-C (P = 0.029, 0.011, 0.005) and the level of triglycerides (P = 0.045, 0.011, 0.005) in young and middle-aged women. There was also a negative correlation between isoprenaline and triglycerides (P = 0.042) in elderly women, No correlations between serum lipids and lipoproteins and skin vessel reactivity were found in men. Conclusions. The results of the study suggest that serum lipids and lipoproteins, primarily HDL-C, influence skin vessel reactivity in healthy women. Furthermore, HDL-C seems to influence the function of the vascular smooth muscle as well as the endothelium.