Frequency and role of apo E phenotype in familial hypercholesterolemia and non-familial hyperlipidemia in the Japanese

Abstract

The frequencies of the major apolipoprotein E(apo E) phenotypes in 65 normal, 426 hyperlipidemics, and 92 familial hypercholesterolemic Japanese subjects (FH) were studied, and features of hyperlipidemia compared between non-FH hyperlipidemia and FH. The frequencies of apo E phenotypes 3/3, 4/3, 3/2, 4/4 were almost the same in normal, non-FH hyperlipidemic, and FH subjects. The incidence of apo E7 was about 0.5% of total subjects. In type IV and V hyperlipidemias, incidence of E4/3 was higher than in any other hyperlipidemia. Incidence of E3/2 was also high in types III and V. In type II non-FH hyperlipidemia, incidence of E3/2 in type IIb was higher than in type IIa. VLDL-triglyceride, VLDL-cholesterol, apo C-II, apo C-III, and apo E levels were higher in E3/2 than in E3/3. But, in type IIa FH and type IIb FH, the incidence of E3/2 was the same, and lipid and apolipoprotein levels between 3/2 and 3/3 in FH were the same. These results indicate that allele epsilon 2 may be involved in the retention of VLDL or IDL, but not in FH.