[The application of end user computing (EUC) for detection of lipoprotein lipase gene abnormality]

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme digesting lipoprotein triglyceride (TG) in peripheral blood vessels. Most patients with LPL deficiency show very high plasma TG and low HDL-C. To establish an effective computer-based screening system to identify individuals with genetic LPL disorders, we selected 50 subjects whose plasma TG was over 350mg/dl and HDL-C was lower than 35mg/dl from patients at Hamamatsu University Hospital. We applied End User Computing (EUC) of our laboratory system to select high risk subjects with LPL gene abnormalities. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from LPL gene exons 2-9 were screened by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP), direct DNA sequence analysis and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). We found a novel missense mutation (1223C-->G, S323C) in LPL gene exon 7 from three subjects. By PCR-mediated site-directed mutagenesis and restriction digestion, the three subjects were found to be heterozygous. In addition, we identified two other common mutations in Japanese employing the RFLP method. One was the 1595C-->G (S447X) in exon 9 from six subjects, two homozygous and four heterozygous individuals. The other was a mutation of intron 3 (C-->T transition) from four heterozygous subjects. Using EUC screening method, we detected genetic LPL abnormalities more easily. The frequency of the LPL gene mutation in the 50 high-risk subjects was 26%, and was estimated to be one out of 2,000 patients at our clinic. Using the EUC system to screen for LPL mutations was established to be an effective computer-based screening system to identify individuals with genetic abnormalities.