Apolipoprotein A-V, triglycerides and risk of coronary artery disease: the prospective Epic-Norfolk Population Study

Abstract

In mouse models, apolipoprotein A-V (apoA-V) exhibits triglyceride (TG)-lowering effects. We investigated the apoA-V/TG relationship and the association of apoA-V with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk by determining serum apoA-V levels and genotypes in a nested case-control (n = 1,034/2,031) study. Both univariate and multivariate apoA-V levels showed no association with future CAD (P = 0.4 and 0.5, respectively). Unexpectedly, there was a significant positive correlation between serum apoA-V and TG in men and women (r = 0.36 and 0.28, respectively, P G polymorphism did not differ between cases and controls despite significant positive association of c.56G with both apoA-V and TG levels. For −1131T>C, the minor allele was significantly associated with lower apoA-V yet higher TG levels and was overrepresented in cases (P = 0.047). The association of −1131T>C with CAD risk, however, was independent of apoA-V levels and likely acts through linkage disequilibrium with APOC3 variants. The positive correlation of apoA-V levels with TG levels, negative correlation with LPL levels, and lack of association with CAD risk highlight the need for further human studies to clarify the role of apoA-V.

Keywords

• single nucleotide polymorphism
• European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
• epidemiology