ADMA in lipid disorders

One of the earliest clinical findings on ADMA was its elevation in plasma of clincially asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic subjects (Figure 18) [8].
In these patients, ADMA was found to be elevated by about two-fold as compared to age-matched normocholesterolemic controls. Importantly, this elevation was found in the absence of overt cardiovascular disease, suggesting that the increase in ADMA levels occurs early during the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and may contribute to its progression. This is also supported by the finding that endothelial dysfunction in hypercholesterolemia is reversed by supplemental L-arginine.
Similarly, hypertriglyceridemia leads to elevation of circulating ADMA levels and may induce endothelial dysfunction via this mechanism [61].

Figure 18. ADMA plasma concentration in hypercholesterolemic patients and age-matched normocholesterolemic controls (from [8] with kind permission of the publishers).