The cholesterol content of an HDL particle is limited by its spherical shape and can be reduced if the HDL carries extra triglycerides.

“so the volume of a sphere is a third power of the radius what might influence even the cholesterol content of 45 cholesterol molecules within an hdl well it's a sphere there's only so much can go in there what if that hdl was carrying extra triglycerides for whatever reason well it couldn't carry very many cholesterol molecules so that would be a cholesterol depleted hdl”