Abstract 535: Gender Dictates the Relationship Between Clinical Markers of Lipid Metabolism and Immune Function

Abstract

Dyslipidemias and leukocytosis are associated with cardiovascular disease and immune disorders. Mechanistic studies have shown lipoprotein metabolism to play a significant role in the regulation of atherosclerosis development and leukocyte activation, whereas lipid-lowering treatments have been shown to exert beneficial anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects in clinical trials. However, the relationship between clinical markers of lipid metabolism and immune function has not been extensively evaluated at the population level. Thus, we analyzed data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1999-2004 to determine whether blood lipids could be used to predict clinical leukocyte counts, and whether there was a relationship between blood lipids, statin use, and prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) – the most common form of autoantibodies. After adjusting for age, serum cotinine, BMI, waist circumference, race/ethnicity, statin use, and survey cycle, we observed a strong positive linear trend between serum triglycerides vs. blood lymphocyte and basophil counts (cells/μL) in men and women (> 20 years old; n= 5,647), whereas a positive trend between monocytes vs. triglycerides and lymphocytes vs. total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol was only detected in women. In multiple regression models, a 10% increase in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides was associated with a predicted 1.6%, 0.6%, and 1.4% increase in blood lymphocyte counts in women, respectively, whereas no relationship was observed in men. In a population subsample (n = 1,526), we further found that women were more likely to be positive for ANA as compared to men (women: 17.4% vs. men: 11.7%); however, we did not observe significant associations between the odds of being ANA positive and serum levels of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, or HDL-cholesterol in either men or women. Interestingly, we found that women who take statins have significantly lower odds of being ANA positive (OR 0.25; 95% CI 0.09-0.76), whereas no significant associations between statin use and ANA prevalence was observed in men. Together, these findings suggest blood lipids and statin usage may be better predictors of clinical markers of immune function in women.