Genetic determinants of plasma HDL-cholesterol levels in prepubertal children
Laura López-Simón1, Manuel de Oya, Miguel A Lasunción
1Lipid Research Laboratory, Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Avda. Reyes Católicos, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Introduction:
Genetic determinants have been related to variation of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, but the extension of this association remains controversial. In our study, we analyzed the contribution of several polymorphisms on HDL-C-related genes to variation of plasma HDL-C in prepubertal children.
Methods:
We studied 1269 (641 males and 628 females) 6-8 years old healthy children, who participated in a cross-sectional study examining cardiovascular risk factors in Spain. Common genetic variants in the apolipoprotein AI, apolipoprotein AII, cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), hepatic lipase, ATP-binding cassette transporter A1, and paraoxonase genes were determined by PCR.
Results:
CETP TaqI B2 carrier girls had significantly higher HDL-C levels than B1B1 girls. B2B2 boys had significantly higher (p<0.001) HDL-C than B1B1and B1B2 boys. In linear regression analysis, CETP TaqIB appears as the main predictor of HDL-C plasma levels, accounting for 4.5% and 1.8% of HDL-C variation in girls and boys respectively.
Conclusions:
Our data showed that among the studied polymorphisms only the CETP TaqIB polymorphism contributes to the variation in HDL-C levels in prepubertal children, particularly in girls, but overall these polymorphisms explain a small part of the variation of HDL-C plasma levels at this age.
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