title: Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in Northern Indian patients with coronary heart disease: phenotype distribution and relation to serum lipids and lipoproteins.
abstract: Apolipoprotein E (apo E), a genetic determinant of plasma lipid levels and coronary heart disease (CHD) needs to be investigated in Asian Indians since they have a propensity to develop dyslipidemia and accelerated atherosclerosis. We studied apo E phenotypes and plasma lipid levels in 52 Northern Indian male patients (aged 38-71 years) with angiographically proven CHD, and compared them to 50 healthy blood donors taken as the control group. High levels of Lp(a), (p < 0.05), and a definite trend towards lower levels of HDL-C (p < 0.05), was observed in the CHD patients as compared to the control subjects. The frequency of apo E allele epsilon3 was 0.86 and 0.862, and epsilon4 allele was 0.12 and 0.08 in the patients and controls, respectively. However, a lower frequency of the E2 allele was observed in the patient group (E2 = 0.02) as compared to the controls (epsilon2 = 0.06) (p = ns). In individuals with apo E3/E3 phenotype, significantly lower HDL-C levels was observed in the CHD patients as compared to the control subjects (p < 0.05). A positive correlation was observed between apo E phenotypes and Lp(a) levels in the CHD subjects as compared to the controls (p < 0.05), the level being significantly high in CHD subjects with at least one E4 allele. To conclude, in this sample of Northern Indian subjects with CHD, there is a significant correlation between apo E3/E3 phenotype and low levels of HDL-C as compared to the control subjects. Further, apo E phenotype is positively correlated with high Lp(a) levels in the CHD subjects having at least one E4 allele. However, these relationships need to be explored in a larger sample of subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. kalpanaluthra@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Kalpana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Luthra
authors.forename: Balram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bharghav
authors.forename: Shivani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chabbra
authors.forename: Nibhriti
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Anoop
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.forename: Dharam P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Ravindra M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Srivastava
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood*; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D008055:Lipids; D008074:Lipoproteins