Small particle size LDL cholesterol associated with diabetes - Low fat diets lead to small particle size LDL cholesterol

This study was published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 1995 Nov;15(11):1805-11

Study title and authors:

Effect of diabetes on lipoprotein size.

Singh AT, Rainwater DL, Haffner SM, VandeBerg JL, Shelledy WR, Moore PH Jr, Dyer TD.

Department of Genetics, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, TX 78228-0147, USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7583559

The effects of diabetes on low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol particle sizes were assessed using samples from 94 subjects with type 2 diabetes and a similar number of matched controls.

The study found:
(a) The LDL cholesterol size was 2% smaller in those with diabetes compared to those without diabetes.
(b) Those with diabetes had 9.1% less of the large LDL cholesterol compared to those without diabetes.

This study shows that small particle size LDL cholesterol is associated with diabetes.

Small particle sizes of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol are caused by diets low in fat see here and here.