Common sequence variant in lipoprotein lipase gene conferring triglyceride response to fibrate treatment.

AIMS

Little is known about whether the variations in the lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein gene cluster (APOA1/C3/A5) confer appreciable triglyceride lowering after fibrate treatment among patients with hypertriglyceridemia.

MATERIALS & METHODS: We investigated whether variations in these genes confer a triglyceride lowering response after fibrate treatment among 145 patients with hypertriglyceridemia receiving 6 months of fibrate treatment.

RESULTS

Overall triglycerides decreased from 746.2 mg/dl to 465.9 mg/dl and the mean percentage of triglyceride lowering was 50.7 +/- 38.6%. A total of two polymorphisms, LPL IVS8 +483T>G and APOA1 +2169G>C, were associated with a significant percentage of triglyceride lowering. Common haplotype effects of LPL on the triglyceride lowering percentage were significant (p = 0.002) and the percentage of variance explained by the LPL haplotype was 7.5%. One common LPL haplotype encompassing three polymorphisms was associated with a -45.40% change (p < 0.001) and risk of a 5.9-fold risk for developing a poor response (95% confidence interval: 1.11-31, p = 0.037), compared with the most frequent LPL haplotype.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that the LPL gene variant may cause triglyceride lowering after fibrate treatment among patients with hypertriglyceridemia.