BACKGROUND: Bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce cardiovascular events and cause specific mortality for coronary artery disease in obese patients. Lipoprotein biomarkers relating to low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), their subfractions, and macrophage cholesterol efflux have all been hypothesized to be of value in cardiovascular risk assessment. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a lifestyle intervention followed by bariatric surgery on the lipid profile of morbidly obese patients. METHODS: Thirty-four morbidly obese patients were evaluated before and after lifestyle changes and then 1 year after bariatric surgery. They were compared with 17 lean subjects. Several lipoprotein metrics, serum amyloid A (SAA), serum paraoxonase-1 (PON1), and macrophage cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC) were assessed. RESULTS: Average weight loss after the lifestyle intervention was 10.5% and 1 year after bariatric surgery was 33.9%. The lifestyle intervention significantly decreased triglycerides (TGs; 28.7 mg/dL, P amp;lt; .05), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C; 32.3 mg/dL, P amp;lt; .0001), and apolipoprotein B (apoB; 62.9 mu g/mL, P amp;lt; .001). Bariatric surgery further reduced TGs (-36.7 mg/dL, P amp;lt; .05), increased HDL cholesterol (+12 mg/dL, P amp;lt; .0001), and reductions in LDL-C and apoB were sustained. Bariatric surgery reduced large, buoyant LDL (P amp;lt; .0001), but had no effect on the small, dense LDL.The large HDL subfractions increased (P amp;lt; .0001), but there was no effect on the smaller HDL sub fractions. The ratio for SAA/PON1 was reduced after the lifestyle intervention (P amp;lt; .01) and further reduced after bariatric surgery (P amp;lt; .0001). Neither the lifestyle intervention nor bariatric surgery had any effect on CEC. CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle intervention followed by bariatric surgery in 34 morbidly obese patients showed favorable effects on TGs, LDL-C, and apoB. HDL cholesterol and apoA1 was increased, apoB/apoA1 ratio as well as SAA/PON1 ratio reduced, but bariatric surgery did not influence CEC. (C) 2017 National Lipid Association. All rights reserved.