Introduction

Sphingolipids are a diverse class of lipids with various roles in cell functions and subclasses such as ceramides have been associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in previous studies.

Objectives

We aimed to measure molecularly-distinct sphingolipids via a large-scale lipidomic analysis and expand the literature to an Asian population.

Methods

We performed a lipidomics evaluation of 79 molecularly distinct sphingolipids in the plasma of 2627 ethnically-Chinese Singaporeans.

Results

During a mean follow-up of 12.9 years, we documented 152 cases of major CVD (non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular death). Total ceramide concentrations were not associated with CVD risk [hazard ratio (HR), 0.99; 95% CI 0.81–1.21], but higher circulating total monohexosylceramides (HR, 1.22; 95% CI 1.03, 1.45), total long-chain sphingolipids (C16–C18) (HR, 1.22; 95% CI 1.02, 1.45) and total 18:1 sphingolipids (HR, 1.21; 95% CI 1.01, 1.46) were associated with higher CVD risk after adjusting for conventional CVD risk factors.

Conclusions

Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher ceramide concentrations are linked to higher CVD risk, but suggest that other classes of sphingolipids may affect CVD risk.

中文翻译：

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血浆鞘脂和心血管疾病的风险：大规模脂质组学分析。

介绍

鞘脂是在细胞功能中具有各种作用的多种脂质，在先前的研究中，神经酰胺等亚类与心血管疾病（CVD）相关。

目标

我们的目标是通过大规模脂质组分析来测量分子独特的鞘脂，并将文献扩展到亚洲人群。

方法

我们对2627名华裔新加坡人的血浆中的79种分子独特的鞘脂进行了脂质组学评估。

结果

在平均12.9年的随访期间，我们记录了152例严重CVD病例（非致命性心肌梗塞，中风和心血管死亡）。神经酰胺总浓度与CVD风险无关[危险比（HR）0.99；95％CI 0.81–1.21]，但是循环总单己糖神经酰胺（HR，1.22； 95％CI 1.03，1.45），长链鞘脂（C16–C18）（HR，1.22； 95％CI 1.02，1.45）和总循环更高在调整了常规CVD危险因素后，18：1鞘脂（HR，1.21； 95％CI 1.01，1.46）与较高的CVD危险相关。

结论

我们的结果不支持较高的神经酰胺浓度与较高的CVD风险有关的假设，但表明其他类别的鞘脂可能会影响CVD风险。