[Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and coronary disease].
BACKGROUND
Apolipoprotein E (Apo E) plays an important role in atherogenesis. Apo E is polymorphic with three codominant alleles: *2, *3 and *4. Inthis study we evaluated the association between *4 allele and coronary heart disease in hypercholesterolemic subjects from Spain.


METHODS
We selected 389 subjects (56% women, mean age 57 years) with hypercholesterolemia who had been on a 6-weeks low fat, low cholesterol diet. Measurement of lipid and lipoprotein concentrations and determination of apoE genotype were carried out in a centralized laboratory.


RESULTS
ApoE distribution was as follows: *2/*33%, *3/*3 75%, *3/*4 20%, *4/*4 1% and *2/*41%. Subjects were grouped into *4 (n = 83) or no *4 (n = 303) according to the presence or absence of the *4 allele. Three *2/*4 cases were excluded. Prevalence of coronary artery disease was 15.7% in *4 and 6.9% in no *4 (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.19-5.22). The relationship persisted significant after correction for age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors and serum concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides by multiple logistic regression analysis (OR2.56, 95% CI 1.03-6.39).Conclusión:In Spain, *4 carriers have a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease than no analysis *4 carriers.
Peña
R
R
Unidad de Arteriosclerosis. Hospital Carlos III. Madrid.
M  Mostaza
J
J
Lahoz
C
C
Jiménez
J
J
Subirats
E
E
Pinto
X
X
Taboada
M
M
López-Pastor A
del Estudio RAP g
D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
D001057:Apolipoproteins E