ABSTRACT
Apolipoprotein E (apoE) is a constituent on lipoprotein surface and plays an important role in lipid metabolism. There are three common isoforms of human apoE, designed apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4 that are coded by three polymorphic alleles of the APOE genes, e2, e3 and e4. Polymorphism of APOE influences the blood lipid concentration and may contribute to susceptibility to dyslipidemia. The present study was therefore to investigate the role of APOE polymorphism on blood lipid levels in Thai individuals. A total of 121 normolipidemic and 125 dyslipidemic subjects were recruited. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood leukocytes and APOE genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP. Allele frequencies of e2, e3 and e4 were 9.3%, 77.8% and 12.8%, respectively. The respective prevalence of APOE genotypes for e2/e2, e3/e3, e4/e4, e2/e3, e2/e4 and e3/e4 were 1.2%, 62.2%, 0.8%, 11.8%, 4.5% and 19.5%. The frequencies of APOE allele and genotype of both groups as well as the relation of APOE genotypes to the risk of dyslipidemia were not significantly different. The elevation of some lipid parameters observed in male subjects and the higher level of lipid profile in dyslipidemic group may be due to other factors and gene polymorphisms.