Rosenson - Figure 16 - Classification table of HDL Text

In order to clarify some of these issues regarding a correct understanding of the relation between HDL and risk, Bryan Brewer and I have organized an HDL summit that aimed to move the HDL biology field forward. In 2010, we convened an international committee in New York to discuss and try to clarify these issues of nomenclature so that when reading in the medical literature clinicians will be able to understand how the various analytical methods for HDL (ultracentrifugation, gel electrophoresis, nuclear magnetic resonance [NMR], ion mobility, or 2-D gel electrophoresis), relate to each other.

Based on physical and chemical properties, we proposed a nomenclature[52] (Figure) that divides the HDL subclasses into 5 different components: very-large (HDL-VL), large (HDL-L), medium (HDL-M), small (HDL-S), and very small HDL particles (HDL-VS).

Rosenson RS. J Clin Lipidol. 2011; 5(6).