Exercise training accelerates the removal from plasma of LDL-like nanoemulsion in moderately hypercholesterolemic subjects

Abstract Objective Exercise training improves plasma lipid profile and diminishes risk of coronary heart disease. Previously, we showed that training increases LDL plasma clearance, as tested by an artificial LDL-like nanoemulsion method, presumably by increasing LDL receptor activity. In this study, we investigated whether training could also improve LDL clearance in hypercholesterolemic subjects (HCh) that are exposed to increased risk of cardiovascular events. Methods Twenty sedentary HCh and 20 normolipidemic (NL) sedentary volunteers were divided into four groups: 12 HCh submitted to 4-month training program, 8 HCh with no exercise program, 12 NL submitted to 4-month training and 8 NL with no exercise program. An LDL-like nanoemulsion labeled with14 C-cholesteryl ester was injected intravenously into all subjects and plasma samples were collected during 24 h after injection to determine the fractional clearance rate (FCR, in h−1 ) by compartmental analysis. The study was performed on the first and on the last day of the 4-month study period. Results In both, trained HCh and NL groups, training increased nanoemulsion FCR by 36% (0.0443 ± 0.0126; 0.0602 ± 0.0187, p = 0.0187 and 0.0503 ± 0.0203; 0.0686 ± 0.0216, p = 0.0827, respectively). After training, LDL cholesterol diminished in both HCh and NL groups. In HCh, but not in NL group, LDL susceptibility to oxidation decreased, but oxidized LDL was unchanged. In both non-trained groups FCR was the same for the last and the 4-month previous evaluation. Conclusion In HCh, exercise training increased the removal of LDL as tested by the nanoemulsion, and this probably accounted for decreased LDL cholesterol and diminished LDL susceptibility to oxidation.