LP(a) particles significantly accelerate the atherosclerotic process and lead to earlier onset of cardiovascular disease.

“LP PA a is the gene that codes for apolipoprotein little a which then binds to an LDL and then turns an LDL from being just a garden variety LDL into an LP little a”

“so LP little a is a bad news uh LDL type particle it's not atherogenic because of the amount of cholesterol it's carrying it's a what I call a minor LDL particle but it particle for particle it's seven to eight times more atherogenic than an LDL particle”

“that APO protein little a has some characteristics that make it extremely atherogenic much of it ties into the oxidation that we mentioned before so if that particle enters your artery wall whatever oxidative forces are at play are going to get much worse which is not good as far as atherogenesis is concerned so if you have these LP little a particles and it's amount of concentration gradient that drives them into your artery War that's sort of an inflamed particle carrying some oxidized phospholipid that can be pulled in by receptors that are still not defined but it can easily get into your artery wall”

“so it's like hey we got a little fire in somebody's backyard and somebody brings a can of gasoline and throws it on the existing fire so the AOS scerotic process occurs much more rapidly earlier in life and uh it's bad news”