Stability of serum total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol during whole blood incubation examined by high performance liquid chromatography / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To examine the changes of serum total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol during whole blood incubation and to investigate the possible mechanisms responsible for the instability.Methods A method for the measurement of serum total cholesterol (TC), total free cholesterol (TFC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) and high density lipoprotein free cholesterol (HDLFC) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed. Whole blood specimens were incubated at 25℃ and 4℃ for various period of time and serum TC, TFC, HDLC and HDLFC were measured.Results The new HPLC method showed a mean within-run CV of 0.22%~0.51%. The averaged changes during the incubations ranged 0.6%~2.0% for TC and 2.0%~4.1% for HDLC.Conclusion An HPLC method has been established that is highly precise and can be used for detecting subtle cholesterol changes in biological samples. Different cholesterol exchanges or transfers between blood cells and lipoproteins exist during various incubations. Prolonged whole blood storage that causes serum TC and HDLC changes should be avoided in clinical lipid measurements.