Recent advances in demystifying the metabolism of lipoprotein(a)

Lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) is a strange lipoprotein species causatively independently and significantly associated with cardiovascular diseases and calcified aortic valve stenosis. Elevated plasma Lp(a) levels increase the rate of cardiovascular events at any achieved low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level. The major structural difference between Lp(a) and LDL is that Lp(a) has a second large protein, apolipoprotein (a) (apo(a)), bound to the apolipoprotein B100 moiety of an LDL sized particle by a single disulfide bond.