Abstract
High levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and high levels of triglycerides (TG) are strong predictors of cardiovascular disease risk. Motivated by previous evidence for pleiotropy between cholesterol and TG levels, we conducted bivariate linkage analysis of LDL cholesterol and TG concentration among participants of the Hypertension Genetic Epidemiolgy Network (HyperGEN), one of four networks in the NHLBI sponsored Family Blood Pressure Program Project. All available hypertensive siblings and their first-degree relatives were recruited. Both phenotypes were similarly adjusted for ethnicity, study center, sex, age, age-by-sex interactions, smoking, alcohol consumption, hormone use, diabetes medication use, and waist circumference. Variance component linkage analysis was performed as implemented in SOLAR, using ethnicity-specific marker allele frequencies derived from founders and multipoint IBDs calculated in MERLIN. A maximum genome-wide empirical LOD score of 3.9 was detected on chromosome 21 at 54 cM, between markers D21S2055 and D21S1446. This signal overlaps with suggestive and/or significant linkages for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B in three other studies and is suggestive of one or more genes on chromosome 21q jointly regulating LDL cholesterol and TG concentration.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 119-125 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Atherosclerosis |
Volume | 179 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We wish to first acknowledge the participants of the HyperGEN study. This hypertension network is funded by cooperative agreements (U10) with NHLBI: HL54471, HL54472, HL54473, HL54495, HL54496, HL54497, HL54509, HL54515. We also acknowledge the HyperGEN Participating Institutions and Principal Staff: Network Center/University of Utah Field Center: Steven C. Hunt, Roger R. Williams (deceased), Hilary Coon, Paul N. Hopkins, Janet Hood, Lily Wu, Jan Skuppin; University of Alabama at Birmingham Field Center: Albert Oberman, Cora E. Lewis, Michael T. Weaver, Phillip Johnson, Susan Walker, Christie Oden; Boston University/Framingham Field Center: R. Curtis Ellison, Richard H. Myers, Yuqing Zhang, Luc Djoussé, Jemma B. Wilk, Greta Lee Splansky; University of Minnesota Field Center: Donna Arnett, Aaron R. Folsom, Mike Miller, Jim Pankow, Gregory Feitl, Barb Lux; University of North Carolina Field Center: Gerardo Heiss, Barry I. Freedman, Kari North, Kathryn Rose, Amy Haire; Data Coordinating Center,Washington University: D.C. Rao, Michael A. Province, Ingrid B. Borecki, Avril Adelman, Derek Morgan, Karen Schwander, David Lehner, Aldi Kraja, Stephen Mandel; Central Biochemistry Lab, University of Minnesota: John H. Eckfeldt, Ronald C. McGlennen, Michael Y. Tsai, Catherine Leiendecker-Foster, Greg Rynders, Jean Bucksa; Molecular Genetics Laboratory, University of Utah: Mark Leppert, Steven C. Hunt, Jean-Marc Lalouel, Robert Weiss; National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute: Susan E. Old, Millicent Higgins (retired), Cashell Jaquish, Martha Lundberg, Mariana Gerschenson. In addition, we acknowledge Brigitt Heier and Marilyn Knowles for assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. We also thank the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute for Digital Simulation and Advanced Computation for use of the IBM SP supercomputer.
Keywords
- Cholesterol
- Linkage (genetics)
- Lipids
- Triglycerides
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine