title: Are men carrying the apolipoprotein epsilon 4- or epsilon 2 allele less fertile than epsilon 3 epsilon 3 genotypes?
abstract: The epsilon 3 allele in the human gene coding for apolipoprotein E (apoE) is the most common worldwide, but epsilon 4 is probably the ancestral allele. Since apoE is involved in many important biological processes, selection forces could have favoured epsilon 3. We hypothesized that apoE genotypes may affect reproductive efficiency, and we therefore compared the distributions of 40-year-old married men with known genotypes by the numbers of their biological children. The distributions were statistically significantly different (P = 0.0026). On average, men with the epsilon 3 epsilon 3 genotype (n = 212) had 1.93 children, men with the epsilon 3 epsilon 4 or epsilon 4 epsilon 4 genotype (n = 105) had 1.50, and men with the epsilon 3 epsilon 2 or epsilon 2 epsilon 2 genotypes (n = 53) had 1.66 children. Of the men in the three groups, 6%, 26% and 19%, respectively, reported being childless. These findings are unlikely to be due to gross error in the reported prevalence of childlessness, differences in socioeconomic status or other likely sources of bias. They are compatible with higher fertility in men with the epsilon 3 epsilon 3 genotype than in those with the other common apoE genotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology A, Aarhus Amtssygehus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: L U
authors.initials: LU
authors.lastname: Gerdes
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gerdes
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: I C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Klausen
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Faergeman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D053329:Apolipoprotein E2; D053318:Apolipoprotein E3; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D003718:Denmark; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005298:Fertility / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D053329:Apolipoprotein E2; D053318:Apolipoprotein E3; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E