Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in Northern Indian patients with coronary heart disease: phenotype distribution and relation to serum lipids and lipoproteins.
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.
Luthra
Kalpana
K
Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. kalpanaluthra@hotmail.com
Bharghav
Balram
B
Chabbra
Shivani
S
Das
Nibhriti
N
Misra
Anoop
A
Agarwal
Dharam P
DP
Pandey
Ravindra M
RM
Srivastava
L M
LM
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*
D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D008055:Lipids; D008074:Lipoproteins