Clinical and epidemiological studies have established serum cholesterol as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Geneticists have focused on the study of genetic and environmental factors that interact to determine the variability in the phenotypes of lipid metabolism. Recent advances that enable one to measure genotypes at loci that code for the apolipoproteins now make it possible to evaluate the contribution of single gene loci to the determination of variation in serum lipid and lipoproteins. Future studies will evaluate the utility of such genetic information in predicting the subset of the population, the families and the individuals that are at increased risk to developing coronary heart disease. We suggest that the use of measured genotype information for genes involved in determining risk factor phenotypes will lead to more accurate and precise prediction of coronary heart disease.
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