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Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and changes in serum lipids during a family-based counselling intervention
Marika Salminen1, Terho Lehtimäki, Yue-Mei Fan
1Institute of Clinical Medicine, Family Medicine, Lemminkäisenkatu 1, FI-20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland. majosa@utu.fi
Objective:
To compare serum lipids and their changes during a family-based health education in children aged 6-17 years with or without the epsilon4 allele of the gene encoding apolipoprotein E (apoE).
Design:
An intervention study.
Setting:
A family-based prevention of risk factors of coronary heart disease in Eastern Finland. The programme consisted of two counselling meetings at children's schools and three at children's homes.
Subjects:
Four hundred and thirty-nine children with a family history of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) participated in a family-based health education. The children were divided into two groups according to apoE genotype. The risk group consisted of 143 children having apoE epsilon4 allele (genotype epsilon3/4 or epsilon4/4) and the non-risk group of 296 children without apoE epsilon4 allele (epsilon2/3 or epsilon3/3). The final sample of the follow-up study included 354 (81%) children (114 and 240, respectively).
Results:
Baseline differences were found in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (P=0.007) and LDL-C/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio (P=0.030) among boys and in total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C (P=0.008) and LDL-C/HDL-C ratios (P=0.006) among girls. Differences between groups in changes during the follow-up were observed only for TC/HDL-C ratio (P-value adjusted for age=0.049) among boys.
Conclusions:
At baseline, children with apoE epsilon4 allele had on average a more unfavourable lipid profile than those without apoE epsilon4 allele. However, the effect of about 33 months' family-based health education on plasma lipids did not depend on apoE genotype in children with a family history of CVD.
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