Dyslipidemia patients display higher levels of pro-inflammatory monocytes than healthy subjects.
We also determined the levels of M1- and M2-like monocytes in healthy subjects and those with dyslipidemia based on the CD14 expression (Fig 3A). There is a higher percentage of M1-like monocytes expressing CD14 high (++) (p= 0.0003, 45.99% ± 23.23% vs 57.52% ± 26.47%, arithmetic mean and SD; Fig 3B), and a higher percentage of M2-like monocytes expressing CD14 dim (+) in the subjects with dyslipidemia compared to the control group (p <0.0001, 3.8% ± 6.67% vs 3.66% ± 2.22%, arithmetic mean and SD; Fig 3C). When evaluating the CD14++CD68+CD80+and CD14+CD163+CD206+populations, we found higher percentages of pro-inflammatory monocytes in the dyslipidemia patients (p= 0.0355, 51.65%, 60.80%-26.53% vs 28%, 39.13%-13.63%, median and IQR; Fig 3B). However, no differences between M2-like monocytes from healthy and dyslipidemia groups, were found (p= 0.5383; Fig 3C).