Increased frequencies of apolipoprotein ε2 and ε4 alleles in patients with ischemic heart disease

It has been demonstrated that the genetic polymorphism of apolipoprotein (apo) E is associated with atherosclerosis. Thus, in this study, we have examined the apo E allele frequencies in 109 patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 576 Japanese people as controls, and we have compared these frequencies between patients with IHD and controls. The frequencies of the e2 and e4 alleles were significantly higher in patients with IHD than in the controls (e2: 8.2% vs 3.7%, e4: 17.0% vs 11.7%), whereas the frequency of the e3 allele was significantly lower in patients with IHD than in the controls (74.8% vs 84.6%). The e2-carrying patients with IHD were characterized by type III (43.8%) and IV (25.0%) hyperlipoproteinemia (HLP), whereas the e4-carrying patients with IHD were characterized by hypercholesterolemia (type IIb HLP: 42.8%, type IIa HLP: 28.6%). It is concluded that both e2 and e4 alleles are more associated with IHD than the e3 allele.