New insight into HDL composition

HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is often referred to as the ‘good cholesterol’. That’s because HDL particles remove cholesterol out of our cells and out of our bodies. But a University of California, Davis study has found there’s more to HDLs than that. Angela Zivkovic, an assistant professor of nutrition, explains. "They don’t just suck cholesterol out. They also actually interact with your immune cells and do some really interesting things to modify the way that your immune system is responding to different things. So, it looks like they can really be remodeled." Zivkovic found that the composition of HDLs, particularly the amount and structure of sugars called glycans, varies in individuals. And this can cause different functions, including influencing the body’s inflammatory response. "It’s not really been understood how exactly that happens, and so what we’re really interested in is, how can you change the composition of the HDL particles to get them to be more anti-inflammatory?" The hope is, HDL sugars can be tested to better predict one’s susceptibility to disease.