Impact of age and body size on inter-individual variation in measures of lipid metabolism: influence of gender and apolipoprotein E genotype

This study was undertaken in 1695 adult subjects (870 women and 825 men) in order to further document the complexity of the influence of the apolipopr otein (apo) E genotypes on the mean levers and intragenotypic variability o f seven measures of lipid metabolism. In addition, the statistical relation ships between variability in these traits and variation in age, body mass i ndex (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were assessed. The contribution of Variation in age and body size to inter-individual variation was found to b e dependent on context, defined by gender and apo E genotype, Our findings are consistent with the reality that it is neither genes nor environments, but their interactions that are responsible for the variation in risk of ca rdiovascular disease.