Relationship of lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations to experimental atherosclerosis in baboons.

For 26 months, we fed baboons a high saturated fat, high cholesterol diet that contained very low concentrations of four common pesticides (chlordane, parathion, diazinon, and carbofuran). We detected no effect of pesticides on body weight, serum lipid, or lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, or experimental atherosclerosis. We then examined the associations of serum lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations (predictor variables) with arterial lesions (response variables). Among predictor variables, very low density lipoprotein plus low density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration showed a positive association with fatty streaks in the aorta and its major branches, including the coronary arteries, while high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration showed a consistently negative association. The very low density lipoprotein plus low density lipoprotein/high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio was more highly associated with lesions than was either value alone. These results are consistent with epidemiologic evidence suggesting that high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration is inversely related to probability of developing clinically manifest atherosclerotic disease.