Plasma factors required for human apolipoprotein A-II dimerization.

Although plasma high-density lipoproteins (HDL) have been implicated in several cardioprotective pathways, the physiologic role of apolipoprotein (apo) A-II, the second most abundant of the HDL proteins, remains ambiguous. Human apo A-II is distinguished from most other species by a single cysteine (Cys6), which forms a disulfide bond with other cysteine-containing apos. In human plasma, nearly all apo A-II occurs as disulfide-linked homodimers of 17.