Lipoprotein, any member of a group of substances containing both lipid (fat) and protein. They occur in both soluble complexes—as in egg yolk and mammalian blood plasma—and insoluble ones, as in cell membranes. The lipoproteins in blood plasma have been intensively studied because they are the mode of transport for cholesterol through the bloodstream and lymphatic fluid.
Cholesterol is insoluble in the blood, and so it must be bound to lipoproteins in order to be transported. Two types of lipoprotein are involved in this function: low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). LDLs transport cholesterol from its site of synthesis in the liver to the body’s cells, where the cholesterol is separated from the LDL and is then used by the cells for various purposes. HDLs probably transport excess or unused cholesterol from the body’s tissues back to the liver, where the cholesterol is broken down to bile acids and is then excreted. About 70 percent of all cholesterol in the blood is carried by LDL particles, and most of the remainder is carried by HDLs. LDL-bound cholesterol is primarily responsible for the atherosclerotic buildup of fatty deposits on the blood vessel walls, while HDL particles may actually reduce or retard such atherosclerotic buildups and are thus beneficial to health.
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Body cells extract cholesterol from the blood by means of tiny coated pits (receptors) on their surfaces; these receptors bind with the LDL particles (and their attached cholesterol) and draw them from the blood into the cell. There are limits to how much cholesterol a body cell can take in, however, and a cell’s capture of LDL particles inhibits the making of more LDL receptors on that cell’s surface, thus lowering its future intake of cholesterol. Fewer receptors on the body cells means that less cholesterol is ingested by the cells and that more remains in the bloodstream, thus increasing the risk of cholesterol accumulating in the interior walls of blood vessels.
Several hereditary genetic disorders, called hyperlipoproteinemias, involve excessive concentrations of lipoproteins in the blood. Other such diseases, called hypolipoproteinemias, involve abnormally reduced lipoprotein levels in the blood.