Quantifying cholesterol synthesis in vivo using 2H2O: enabling back-to-back studies in the same subject

Abstract

The advantages of using 2H2O to quantify cholesterol synthesis include i) homogeneous precursor labeling, ii) incorporation of 2H via multiple pathways, and iii) the ability to perform long-term studies in free-living subjects. However, there are two concerns. First, the t1/2 of tracer in body water presents a challenge when there is a need to acutely replicate measurements in the same subject. Second, assumptions are made regarding the number of hydrogens (n) that are incorporated during de novo synthesis. Our primary objective was to determine whether a step-based approach could be used to repeatedly study cholesterol synthesis a subject. We observed comparable changes in the 2H-labeling of plasma water and total plasma cholesterol in African-Green monkeys that received five oral doses of 2H2O, each dose separated by one week. Similar rates of cholesterol synthesis were estimated when comparing data in the group over the different weeks, but better reproducibility was observed when comparing replicate determinations of cholesterol synthesis in the same nonhuman primate during the respective dosing periods. Our secondary objective was to determine whether n depends on nutritional status in vivo; we observed n of ∼25 and ∼27 in mice fed a high-carbohydrate (HC) versus carbohydrate-free (CF) diet, respectively. We conclude that it is possible to acutely repeat studies of cholesterol synthesis using 2H2O and that n is relatively constant.

Keywords

• stable isotopes
• mass spectrometry
• kinetic biomarker
• dyslipidemia
• cardiovascular disease