Evidence for the in vivo presence of Ox-LDL

Oxidative modification of LDL renders it immunogenic, and antibodies to the epitope of Ox-LDL, such as malondialdehyde (MDA)lysine, are found in serum and recognise material in atheromatous tissue [41,42]. However, until recently, there has been no prospective study to assess the importance of Ox-LDL among patients with vascular disease. 

A recent study [42] compared the titre of autoantibodies to malondialdehyde (MDA)-modified LDL and native LDL in baseline serum samples of 30 Eastern Finish men with accelerated two-year progression of carotid atherosclerosis and 30 age-matched controls without progression. Neither group had specific antibody binding to native LDL. A titre was defined as the ratio of antibody 

LDL oxidation is prevented by antioxidant molecules (11). On average, one LDL particle contains about 6 molecules of a-tocopherol [11], with lowest and highest a-tocopherol contents of 3 and 10 molecules [11]. The reason for this high variation is not clear, but it is reasonable to assume that it reflects to some extent the different dietary conditions. 

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