Background and aims: Patients with cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) suffer from myocardial inflammation, but atherosclerosis is not infrequent in these patients. However, the classical atherosclerotic risk factors, such as perturbed serum lipids and whole-body cholesterol metabolism, remain unravelled in CS.
Methods: We assessed serum non-cholesterol sterols, biomarkers of whole-body cholesterol synthesis and cholesterol absorption efficiency, with gas-liquid chromatography in 39 patients with histologically verified CS and in an age-adjusted random population sample (n = 124).
Results: CS was inactive or responding to treatment in all patients. Concentrations of serum, LDL, and HDL cholesterol and serum triglycerides were similar in CS patients and in control subjects. Cholesterol absorption markers were higher in CS patients than in controls (eg serum campesterol to cholesterol ratio in CS 246 ± 18 vs in controls 190 ± 8 10(2) x μmol/mmol of cholesterol, p = 0.001). Cholesterol synthesis markers were lower in CS patients than in controls (eg serum lathosterol to cholesterol ratio in CS 102 ± 8 vs in controls 195 ± 5 10(2) x μmol/mmol of cholesterol, p = 0.000). In CS patients, cholesterol absorption markers significantly correlated with plasma prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (proBNP), a marker of hemodynamic load.
Conclusion: High cholesterol absorption efficiency, which is suggested to be atherogenic, characterized the metabolic profile of cholesterol in CS patients. The association between cholesterol absorption efficiency and plasma proBNP concentration, which suggests a link between inflammation, cholesterol homeostasis, and hemodynamic load, warrants further studies in order to confirm this finding and to reveal the underlying mechanisms.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Campesterol; Cholesterol absorption; Cholesterol synthesis; Inflammation; Lathosterol; Myocardial disease.
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