Differential effects of aging, drinking and exercise on serum cholesterol levels dependent on the PPARA-V227A polymorphism.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA alpha) plays a pivotal role in lipid metabolism. Our previous study reported that PPARA-V227A was a major polymorphism in Japanese, which was associated with markedly lower serum total cholesterol (TC) levels, which were significantly affected by alcohol drinking compared to subjects with the wild-type (PPARA-WT) allele. However, serum lipids are also associated with aging and exercise frequency. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between PPARA-V227A and these factors. Genetic analysis of the polymorphism was performed in 1058 Japanese men and 281 women, and the relationship with aging, drinking and exercise on serum lipids was analyzed in 989 men and 245 women after exclusion criteria had been applied. In men, drinking increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in both PPARA-WT and A227 carriers, but to a significantly higher degree in the latter. In women, TC and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels in the A227 carriers drinking at least once a week were significantly higher than in PPARA-WT carriers. TC and LDL-C levels in males with PPARA-WT increased with aging regardless of drinking habit, while LDL-C levels in the A227 drinking carriers were significantly lower in 45-yr-old or older subjects than in 35- to 45-yr-olds. In addition, no effect of exercising was observed in the A227 carriers, while increase in the HDL-C of the PPARA-WT carriers was exercise frequency dependent. These results suggest that the influence of drinking, aging or exercise on TC, LDL-C and HDL-C levels in the A227 carriers may be different from those in the PPARA-WT subjects.