Cholesterol ester and phospholipid composition of normal aortas and of atherosclerotic lesions in children

Abstract

Gas chromatographic techniques have been used to study the lipid composition of children's arteries over the first decade of life. Children's aortas were separated into intima and media and, where present, into intimal fatty streak lesions and media underlying such lesions, and the level of cholesterol ester and of phospholipid and the fatty acid composition of these fractions in these various portions of the aortas was determined. The ester cholesterol concentration of the normal intima, but not of the media, increased with age. The ester cholesterol concentration of the fatty streak lesions exceeded that of the normal intima and also increased with age. No changes with age in phospholipid content for normal intima or media or for the intimal lesion were observed. The cholesterol ester fatty acid composition of the normal intima and of the media was similar to that of the lesions studied, and all tissues manifested a change in composition with age; cholesterol linoleate increasing and cholesterol palmitate decreasing during the first decade. These age changes for the aortic fractions were shown to resemble changes with age in the serum cholesterol ester fatty acids. The phospholipid fatty acid pattern of normal intima and media resembled those of the lesion but no change with age in phospholipid fatty acid pattern was found. No correspondence of the aortic phospholipid pattern with the serum pattern was demonstrated. These data are consistent with the view that arterial cholesterol ester, but not phospholipid, in both the normal intima and in the early fatty streak lesion in children arises initially from serum.