Serum sterol profiling reveals increased cholesterol biosynthesis in childhood obesity

Risk factors and predictive biomarkers of early cardiovascular disease in obese youth

“…Hypertension has long been recognized as a vital risk factor in the development of CVD, and blood pressure monitoring in adults is an important focus of CVD prevention. 33 With the rising prevalence of 11 Rising prevalence of childhood hypertension Moore et al 12 Correlation between BMI ≥ 95th percentile and increased BP among public school students in Anadarko, Oklahoma Cao et al 13 Overweight and obese girls and boys are 11 and eight times more likely to have hypertension compared with normal weight adolescents Lo et al 14 Threefold increase in risk of hypertension when comparing severe with moderate obesity Dyslipidaemia May et al 15 and Herouvi et al 16 Increase in total cholesterol, LDL, and triglyceride levels and lower HDL level in obese youth Elmaoğullari et al 17 42.9% of 823 obese patients aged between 2 and 18 years had dyslipidaemia, particularly hypertriglyceridaemia Son et al 18 Serum levels of cholesterol precursors are higher in overweight and obese children Juhola et al 19 Abnormal lipid levels in childhood is strongly associated with abnormal levels in adulthood…”

“…A South Korean study suggested that serum levels of precursors increases the level of LDL as the main function of LDL is to deliver cholesterol to be utilized by cells. 18 Juhola et al reported that there is a strong association between abnormal lipid levels in childhood to abnormal values later in adulthood, thus further highlighting the need to provide early intervention for overweight and obese children. 19…”

Cholesterol homeostasis in cardiovascular disease and recent advances in measuring cholesterol signatures

“…5). Serum-free cholesterol strongly correlated with total and LDL-cholesterols, whereas HDL-cholesterol showed a relatively weak correlation [76]. This may suggest that free cholesterol in serum could proportionally reflect total cholesterol.…”

“…Cholesterol is the most abundant plasma sterol, followed by several metabolic precursors including lathosterol, desmosterol, and 7-dehydrocholesterol. As a major precursor of cholesterol, lathosterol can be considered as a biochemical marker of wholebody cholesterol synthesis [76]. Although cholesteryl esters represent the most abundant lipid class in human plasma, the conventional blood tests generally do not discriminate between free and modified cholesterols, such as hydroxycholesterols and cholesteryl esters.…”

“…Cholesterol forms CEs with fatty acids via action of lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and acyl CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT); it may also form hydroxycholesterols (OHCs) by action of various hydroxylases or non-enzyme-derived hydroxylation at the C-4, C-7, C-19, C-20, C-24, C-25, and C-27 positions. Data modified from Son et al (2015).…”