Allelic frequencies of polymorphic variants at the lipoprotein lipase
gene locus have been measured in subjects with premature coronary arte
ry disease and dyslipidaemia. One of the polymorphic variants involves
a termination codon in exon 9 that produces a truncated protein whose
Michaelis constants for triolein or chylomicra are identical to the n
ative enzyme but whose V-max for both substrates may be increased. The
other informative polymorphism is a HindIII site in intron 8 that sho
ws marked assymetric allelic distribution in subjects with hypertrigly
ceridaemia/low HDL syndrome and in subjects with premature coronary ar
tery disease. It is hoped that the marker may lead to the identificati
on of an aetiological mutation in its vicinity to account for these di
sease associations.