Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in non-insulin-dependent diabetics of Mumbai, India and its effect on plasma lipids and lipoproteins

The role of apolipoproteinE (apoE) phenotypes in modulating the plasma lipi d and lipoprotein levels was studied in a group of NIDDM patients and healt hy individuals residing in Mumbai. The apoE phenotype frequencies were simi lar in the diabetic and healthy persons. The elevations in the lipid/lipopr otein levels were higher in diabetic subjects (53.3%) than in the controls (8%), showing the frequency of increase to be highest in the apoE4/4 group of diabetics, followed by apoE4/3 and apoE3/2 groups. In the controls as we ll, a similar trend was observed in different groups, indicating that the s usceptibility to changes in lipid concentrations differs among apoE phenoty pes. The apoE3/3 bearing individuals in both the categories showed close to normal lipid levels, suggesting it to be the wild type. The occurrence of apoE4 allele was higher than the apoE2 allele in diabetic individuals. Diab etic subjects with the apoE4 allele showed hypercholesterolemia, while thos e with apoE2 showed the presence of hypertriglyceridemia. One of the striki ng features of our work is a significant relationship between apoE4/3 pheno type in NIDDM persons and elevated levels of plasma triglyceride, thus sugg esting a delayed catabolism of VLDL relative to production. In conclusion, the work suggests that the apoE2 and apoE4 alleles are associated with elev ations in lipid levels and these changes are more pronounced in the diabeti c individuals in whom most of the lipid levels were higher, indicating a ge ne-environment/disease interaction. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.