Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid cholesterol esterification is hampered in Alzheimer’s disease

Table 3 Lipids/apolipoproteins in CSF of Alzheimer’s disease patients and control subjects

	AD (n = 70)	CN (n = 21)	P
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	0.34 ± 0.13	0.40 ± 0.12	0.12
Unesterified cholesterol (mg/dL)	0.15 ± 0.04	0.15 ± 0.04	0.48
Unesterified/total cholesterol	0.49 ± 0.13	0.40 ± 0.12	0.07
Cholesteryl esters (mg/dL)	0.31 ± 0.18	0.42 ± 0.19	0.10
Phospholipids (mg/dL)	0.20 ± 0.08	0.14 ± 0.03	0.01
Apolipoprotein A-I (mg/dL)	0.91 ± 0.44	0.86 ± 0.28	0.99
Apolipoprotein E (mg/dL)	2.13 (1.5; 2.9)	1.35 (1.2; 1.8)	0.007
CER (nmol/mL/h)^a	0.32 (0.15; 0.50)	2.27 (0.50–4.45)	0.05
CEC from astrocytes (%)	2.19 ± 0.60	2.84 ± 0.93	0.01

AD Alzheimer’s disease, CN cognitive normal controls, CER cholesterol esterification rate, CEC cholesterol efflux capacity
Data are reported as mean ± SD or median (1^st; 3^rd quartile). AD and controls were compared by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test
^aCER was measured in a subgroup of CSF samples (n = 10 for AD and n = 5 for CN)

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