APOLIPOPROTEIN-E ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN A SOUTH-AFRICAN INDIAN FEMALE-POPULATION

Coronary heart disease is common amongst South Africans of Indian (Asi an) ancestry. As part of an investigation into risk factors in premeno pausal and post-menopausal Indian nurses, we determined the apolipopro tein E genotype by means of restriction isotyping on 173 healthy nurse s between the ages of 25-55 years. The apolipoprotein E allele frequen cies on 346 chromosomes were: epsilon 2, 1.2% (95% confidence interval 0.06-2.66); epsilon 3, 87.6% (95% confidence interval 84.1-91.1 and e psilon 4, 11.3% (95% confidence interval 7.94-14.60). No epsilon 2/2 h omozygotes were encountered. Our results demonstrate an extremely low frequency of the epsilon 2 allele, a low-normal apo epsilon 4 and a hi gh epsilon 3 allele frequency. It is unlikely that apolipoprotein E po lymorphism contributes to the high incidence of coronary heart disease in this population.