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Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is known to be a cholesterol-rich lipoprotein, however, the contribution of Lp(a)-cholesterol [Lp(a)-C] to the serum cholesterol and LDL-C levels has not yet been fully evaluated.

We determined the serum Lp(a)-C in 55 subjects with serum Lp(a) concentrations ranging from 9 to 129mg/dl. To measure the serum Lp(a)-C concentrations, we developed an immunoaffinity gel assay; serum was incubated with Sepharose 4B gel coupled with immunoglobulin G (IgG) prepared from a polyclonal anti-Lp(a) goat antiserum. After separating Lp(a) from other lipoproteins, we determined the serum Lp(a)-C concentrations. Validation of the assay showed satisfactory results in terms of the specificity and reproducibility.

The mean cholesterol content of Lp(a), determined as Lp(a)-C/Lp(a), was 29.5±10.4%. The serum Lp(a)-C values were found to be highly correlated with …