Postprandial lipid metabolism in diabetes.

Postprandial lipemia is an inherent feature of diabetic dyslipidemia and highly prevalent in diabetic patients even with normal fasting triglyceride concentrations. Postprandial lipemia is characterized by long residence time of chylomicron and VLDL remnants in the circulation. Insulin resistance causes increased flux of free fatty acids, and thus enhanced VLDL apolipoprotein B (apo B) synthesis in the liver. Together with chylomicron and VLDL remnant competition for the common removal mechanisms the increased substrate input results in exaggerated and prolonged postprandial lipemia. Studies using both apo B-48 and retinyl esters as a marker for intestinally derived particles have shown that increased postprandial lipemia does not predict the presence or absence of coronary artery disease between non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) subjects. Recent data have shown that postprandial triglyceride-rich remnants are atherogenic, and postprandial hypertriglyceridemia contributes to the metabolic disturbances transforming LDL and HDL subclasses into more atherogenic direction in diabetic subjects.