Determination of Apolipoprotein C3 levels in patient plasma and tear samples

• Main Author: Kuang, Zi Chuen
• Other Authors: Yusuf Ali
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Medicine
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72632
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Apolipoprotein C3 (ApoC3) has been shown to be consistently associated with multiple diseases, namely hypertriglyceridemia, non-alcoholic fatty disease, ischemic vascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. However these associations have not been investigated for and verified in the Southeast Asian population. Furthermore, in the burgeoning field of tear proteomics, ApoC3 has not been investigated for despite its established association with disease. Blood and tear fluid samples were collected from 96 Singaporeans across 3 ethnicities (Malay, Indian and Chinese) and analyzed for ApoC3 and other blood biomarkers (lipids, glucose, HbA1c, etc.). For both plasma and tear samples, ApoC3 levels were compared between diabetic and control subjects, with further comparison of plasma ApoC3 said blood biomarkers. Amongst the different blood biomarkers, whole cohort ApoC3 was correlated only to plasma triglycerides (r = 0.3383). Plasma ApoC3 concentration was found to be elevated by 42% (p-value = 0.0171), and associated with non-fasting blood glucose (r = 0.6933) and HbA1c (r = 0.5026) in Indian but not Chinese and Malay diabetic patients. The findings implicate ApoC3 and its association with T2DM more strongly in the Indian population, further suggesting that the degree of ApoC3 contribution to T2DM risk is different in different ethnicities. Furthermore, tear ApoC3 levels were shown to be an unsatisfactory predictor of plasma ApoC3 (regression equation Y = 1.49(X) + 341.6, R2 = 0.111).