The response to lovastatin treatment in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia is modulated by apolipoprotein E polymorphism.

In a retrospective study, we examined the influence of apolipoprotein (apo) E polymorphism and gender on the response to treatment with 80 mg/d lovastatin in a homogeneous population of patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), most of whom were carriers of the 10-kb deletion of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor gene. Apo E phenotype distribution among the 189 FH patients was not different from that of a normal population sample. The total and LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) response to lovastatin in the overall group (men and women) was significantly lower in the E4 subset compared with E2 and E3 subsets.

Sources of interindividual variation in the quantitative levels of apolipoprotein B in pedigrees ascertained through a lipid clinic.

The quantitative level of apolipoprotein (apo) B associated with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) varies among individuals within the population. This variation in level of the LDL receptor ligand appears to have predictive value, and may have an etiologic role, in coronary artery disease. Complex segregation analysis was used to compare eight different models of transmission.