Presence and formation of 'free apolipoprotein A-I-like' particles in XXXX plasma.

@entity1 @entity8652 @entity2975
The influence of dilution on apolipoprotein (apo) A-I-containing subpopulations was studied in @entity1 plasma. Agarose electrophoresis and two-dimensional agarose nondenaturing gradient @entity2975 gel electrophoresis were used. Both in one- and two-dimensional electrophoresis, an increase of charge was observed that resulted in an increase of subpopulations with pre-alpha mobility. Dilution of plasma also resulted in a decrease in the size of apo A-I-containing pre- @entity8652 subpopulations. The existence of smaller pre- @entity8652 particles was confirmed by subjecting undiluted and 8x diluted plasma to 3% to 16% nondenaturing gradient gel electrophoresis for 4 hours. In addition to the generally observed pre- @entity8652 subpopulations, smaller particles similar in size to the free apo A-I were detected even in the undiluted plasma. During dilution, the proportion of larger pre- @entity8652 particles decreased while the smaller ones increased, and in 8x diluted plasma, almost all the pre- @entity8652 was present in smaller sizes. Using 3% to 35% nondenaturing @entity2975 gels run for 24 hours, no pre- @entity8652 particles could be detected in 8x diluted plasma because the small pre- @entity8652 electrophoresed out. These studies show that pre- @entity8652 particles can be converted to smaller ones during dilution. It also was demonstrated that "free apo A-I-like" pre- @entity8652 particles are present in undiluted plasma. The presence of these particles may have important physiological and pathophysiological functions.
