From cholesterol to lipoproteins and apolipoproteins

Abstract

Since 1816, the year when the French chemist Chevreul discovered cholesterol, there has been an increasing interest in the role of cholesterol, and subsequently in the dyslipidaemias, as causal risk factors for atherosclerosis and its sequel clinical atherosclerosis. The role of blood lipids and lipid parameters as risk factors for clinical atherosclerosis started to become evident when methods to determine blood cholesterol became available at the beginning of the 20th century. These used the Liebermann-Burchard colour reaction, which is specific for cholesterol. Soon case-control studies were published showing that high plasma cholesterol levels were frequent in patients with CHD. It was soon discovered that cholesterol was not present in plasma as such but occurred in combination with proteins and other lipids in large molecules that circulate in the blood as particles called lipoproteins.