Common Genetic and Environmental Effects on Lipid Phenotypes: The HERITAGE Family Study

Vol. 59, No. 1, 2005

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Original Paper

Common Genetic and Environmental Effects on Lipid Phenotypes: The HERITAGE Family Study
Mary F. Feitosa^a, Treva Rice^a, Tuomo Rankinen^b, Laura Almasy^c, Arthur S. Leon^d, James S. Skinner^e, Jack H. Wilmore^f, Claude Bouchard^b, D.C. Rao^{a, g}

^aDivision of Biostatistics and
^gDepartments of Genetics and Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Mo.;
^bPennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, Baton Rouge, La.;
^cDepartment of Genetics, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Tex.;
^dSchool of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.;
^eDepartment of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.;
^fDepartment of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Tex., USA

Address of Corresponding Author

Hum Hered 2005;59:34-40 (DOI: 10.1159/000084735)

Key Words

Lipids
Lipoproteins
Pleiotropic effect
Genetics
Exercise
Risk factors
Coronary heart disease

Abstract

Objective: Despite the well known genetic component influencing plasma lipid-lipoprotein levels and the observed correlations among these traits, little is known about pleiotropic heritable determinants among them. Our aim is to investigate pair-wise polygenic and environmental correlations among lipid-lipoprotein levels at baseline and in response to regular exercise in Whites and Blacks. Methods: Common pair-wise genetic and environmental correlations among levels of total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, ApoB, HDL-C (also HDL₂-C and HDL₃-C), triglycerides (TG, HDL-TG and LDL-TG) and ApoA-1 were investigated at baseline and again after a 20-week endurance exercise program using a variance-components-decomposition. Results: With a few exceptions, all lipid phenotypes were heritable at baseline and for training responses in Blacks and Whites. Strong to high genetic and environmental correlations (0.4 < rho _g < 0.7) were observed for the majority of the baseline pair-wise traits. For training responses, many of the same patterns were noted, although fewer genetic correlations were significant as compared to the baseline results. Conclusions: Results suggest that the observed phenotypic correlations among many of these traits may be due to in part to pleiotropic genes, in particular between LDL-C and ApoB and between TG and HDL-C. This shared genetic architecture should be considered in follow-up gene finding studies.

Author Contacts

Mary Furlan Feitosa, PhD
Division of Biostatistics, Campus Box 8067
Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid
St. Louis, MO 63110-1093 (USA)
Tel. +1 314 747 3792, Fax +1 314 362 2693, E-Mail maryf@wubios.wustl.edu

Article Information

Received: October 11, 2004
Accepted after revision: December 13, 2004
Published online: March 30, 2005
Number of Print Pages : 7
Number of Figures : 0, Number of Tables : 3, Number of References : 28

Medline Abstract (ID 15802920)

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