ASSOCIATION OF APOLIPOPROTEIN GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS WITH PLASMA-CHOLESTEROL IN A JAPANESE RURAL-POPULATION - THE SHIBATA STUDY

The association between apolipoprotein (apo) genetic polymorphisms and lipid phenotypes remains to be determined because such studies have r eported contradictory results. We have measured plasma total cholester ol (TC) and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) in a cross-sectional sample of 132 8 (462 men and 866 women) Japanese (aged 40 to 80 years) and Msp I and Sst I sites; apoB signal peptide insertion/deletion, Xba I site and 3 ' variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR); and apoE. Using multivaria te analyses (ANOVA) we found that (1) the polymorphisms of apoAl-C3 an d apoB genes are not significantly associated with TC or HDL-C and (2) the polymorphism of the apoE gene is significantly related with TC an d the TC:HDL-C ratio. The epsilon 2 carriers have lower levels of TC a nd a lower TC:HDL-C ratio, epsilon 3 carriers have intermediate levels , and epsilon 4 carriers have higher levels. These findings held wheth er sexes were analyzed separately or together. Although an opposite tr end in HDL-C levels was observed, it did not reach the level of statis tical significance. Multiple regression analyses have shown that apoE polymorphism accounts for about 2.3% of the variation in TC and TC:HDL -C ratio irrespective of sex. When the subjects are divided into two g roups according to their age (less than or equal to 59 and greater tha n or equal to 60 years old), the effect of apoE alleles on serum chole sterols appears to be diluted in the younger age group whereas it appe ars to be accentuated in the older group for both sexes. Our findings suggest that among the apo genetic polymorphisms examined, the apoE ge ne may be considered as a possible candidate for the ''high-risk'' str ategy of atherosclerosis prevention in the Japanese population.