Biomedical Research

Lipoprotein (a) and homocysteine are two important independent risk factors for coronary atherosclerosis. Lipoprotein (a) is a low-density lipoprotein -like particle formed by the as-sociation of the highly polymorphic glycosylated apolipoprotein (a) with apolipoprotein _B100. Homocysteine is formed as a by-product of the metabolism of amino acid methionine. The present review attempts to elaborate the roles of homocysteine and lipoprotein (a) in the etiopathogenesis of CAD and the inter relationship between these two established risk fac-tors. The literature was searched from the websites of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and Pub Med Central, the U.S. National Library of Medi-cine’s digital archive of life sciences journal literature. The role of homocysteine and lipo-protein (a) has been extensively investigated during the past few decades. The outcomes have been varied with both favourable and unfavourable inferences. Certain researchers have also pointed towards interplay between these two risk factors at the molecular level. A better understanding of the interaction between the risk factors of CAD will help in better risk stratification and management of this disease.

Author(s): Devika Tayal , Binita Goswami, Bidhan Chandra Koner and V. Mallika
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