Affiliations: Lipid Unit, Fundación Jiménez
Díaz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain | Department of Cardiology, Hospital Virgen de la Salud,
Toledo, Spain | Primary Prevention Center "Eloy Gonzalo", Madrid,
Spain
Note: [] Corresponding author: Dr. Carmen Garcés Lipid Unit,
Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Avda. Reyes Católicos, 2,
28040 Madrid, Spain. Tel.: +34 91 5432880; Fax: +34 91 5444100; E-mail:
cgarces@fjd.es
Abstract: Apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays an important role in lipid metabolism.
Its ε4 allele has been consistently associated with lipoprotein disorders
but its connection to myocardial infarction (MI) is controversial. Because
ε4 frequency decreases with age we thought that the contradictory results
in different studies could be due to the wide age range of the subjects
included. To test our hypothesis, ApoE genotyping was performed in 474 MI cases
and an analysis was performed by percentiles of age. The frequencies of ε3ε4 genotype and ε4 allele in
the MI group as a whole (subjects aged 31 to 92) were not significantly
different from those in our area general population. However, significant
differences were observed when comparing by group of age. The frequencies
decreased as age increased. The ε3ε4 and ε4 frequencies were
significantly higher in MI subjects aged 31 to 56 than in subjects over 74. The
ε3ε4 genotype prevalence in an age and sex matched control group of
subjects aged 31 to 56 was significantly lower than in the 31–56 year-old
MI group. In conclusion, our data shows different ε3ε4 and
ε4 frequencies depending on the age range of the subjects with MI, being
significantly higher in the middle-aged group. This finding may help explain
the discrepancies between studies analyzing association between apoE genotype
and MI, and emphasizes the idea of considering apoE genotype for prevention at
early age.
