Non-elevated cardiovascular risk in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and hypercholesterolemia

Primary biliary cirrhosis(PBC) is an autoimmune disease with unknown causes.Most PBC patients have abnormal lipid metabolism characterized by hypercholesterolemia.Paradoxically,clinical observations and pre-experimental studies showed that the risk of hyperlipidemia associated cardiovascular event and the mortality of PBC patients were not increased.In this review we summarize the possible reasons and the underlying mechanisms.