Familial hypercholesterolemia and HLA antigens

Abstract

Hereditary factors play an important role in the etiology and progression of coronary heart disease (CHD), most probably by causing the appearance and the levels of its risk factors. To investigate if there is a correlation between familial hypercholesterolemia and HLA system antigens, 25 subjects of 7 families with familial hypercholesterolemia were compared with 14 normocholesterolemic related subjects. Compared to normocholesterolemic kindreds, the familial hypercholesterolemic subjects have a significant increased HLA-Bw35 antigen and a lack of HLA-A1. Therefore, the correlation found with some HLA system phenotypes improves our knowledge about familial hypercholesterolemia and aids in the identification of subjects affected with this disorder of lipid metabolism, which is one of the most important CHD risk factors.