[Identification of variants in LMF1 gene associated with primary hypertriglyceridemia]

The majority of severe primary hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) are diagnosed in adults, and their molecular bases have not yet been fully defined. The promoter, coding regions and intron-exon boundaries of LMF1 were sequenced in 112 patients with severe primary hipertrigliceridemia (defined as TG above 500mg/dl). Five patients (4.46%) were carriers of four rare variants in the LMF1 gene associated with HTG, which participate in lipoprotein lipase (LpL) function. Also, we have identified two common variants, c.194-28 T>G and c.729+18C>G that were associated with HTG, with a different allelic frequency to that observed in the general population. A bioinformatic analysis of all found variants was conducted, defining the following as potentially harmful: p.Arg364Gln, p.Arg451Trp, p.Pro562Arg and p.Leu85Leu. Our results suggest that LMF1 mutations are involved in a substantial proportion of cases with severe HTG, putting together the moderate-aggressive effect of rare mutations with polymorphisms classically associated with this disease.