Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an emerging health hazard, connected to very high cardiovascular mortality due to accelerated atherosclerosis. Increased cardiovascular risk cannot be explained only by traditional risk factors. Patients with renal dysfunction have significant disturbances in lipoprotein metabolism and HDL in these patients becomes dysfunctional. It has been documented that in patients with CKD lower plasma level of HDL cholesterol and reduced ability of HDL to bind to ABCA1 are seen, which result in slowing down the reverse cholesterol transport and disturbances in HDL maturation due to decreased lecithin cholesterol ester transfer protein. Studies demonstrated that HDL of CKD patients loses its vasoprotective, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties and turns into a noxious particle which promotes endothelial dysfunction via stimulating superoxide production and limiting NO bioavailability. Alterations of HDL at the ‘molecular and functional level’ are also seen in renal transplant recipients even in those with excellent graft function.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis, CAD risk, chronic kidney disease, dysfunctional HDL.