SOME QUESTIONS CONCERNING A SMALL, MORE ELECTRONEGATIVE LDL CIRCULATING IN HUMAN PLASMA

Atherosclerosis and its complications are prevalent worldwide with a high prevalence in western societies. The disease may sometimes be explained by a defect of low density lipoprotein (LDL) specific receptors. However, the prevalence of receptor defect is rather rare and a large body of evidence supports the possibility that an alternative pathway, the so-called "scavenger pathway", constitutes the gate through which cholesterol enters into the parietal wall and gives origin to the "foam cell". Experimental work has clearly demonstrated that LDL may be modified under the action of chemical and biological offenders, all of which make the LDL an "alien". Some papers suggest that the modifications of LDL may occur also "in vivo" in the microenvironment of the vascular vall. In 1988 we were able to record two LDL subfractions in human plasma; the more electronegative minor subfraction shares many of the peculiar traits of LDL(s) modified "in vitro". The present article stresses all the points which support the hypothesis that the small more electronegative LDL circulating modified LDL, may represent a certain amount of possibly oxidative in origin.