Relation between plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and sex hormone concentrations in men

Abstract

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is inversely associated with risk of heart attack. Sex hormones have been suggested as possible factors contributing to the gender difference of coronary heart disease risk. Little is known about how endogenous sex hormone concentration might be related to HDL cholesterol. The relation was examined in 225 men participating in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. Plasma testosterone concentration was positively correlated with HDL cholesterol and the change in testosterone concentration was also positively correlated with change in HDL cholesterol. The relation between testosterone and HDL cholesterol could not be fully explained by age, relative weight, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking in the cross-sectional study. However, when this relation was examined longitudinally, the partial correlation between changes in testosterone and HDL cholesterol did not quite achieve statistical significance (0.05 < p < 0.10). The biologic process that relates HDL cholesterol to testosterone is not known. The results suggest an inverse relation between plasma estradiol concentration and lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol, but no statistical significant correlation with HDL cholesterol. In addition, there was no association noted in the current research between estradiol concentrations and the known determinants of HDL cholesterol.