Lipoprotein abnormalities, characterized by elevated levels of LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TRIG) and low levels of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), have a central role in the development of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease (CHD). A recent meta-analysis, including 3,000 individuals with CHD-related deaths, showed that HDL-C and LDL-C are independently associated with CHD risk ( 1 ). There is also considerable evidence that high levels of TRIG are an additional, independent risk factor for CHD ( 2, 3 ), although this is still controversial ( 4 ).Individuals of African ancestry have a more favorable lipoprotein profi le than Caucasians, characterized by lower levels of TRIG and higher levels of HDL-C ( 5-8 ).The mechanisms responsible for these ethnic differences remain to be defi ned. In particular, the differences in TRIG levels are independent of the greater degree of obesity among individuals of African ancestry and several other risk factors and appear to be consistent across African populations in different environments ( 9 ), indicating a possible role of genetic factors. Although genetic factors are important in determining lipoprotein levels, little data Abstract African ancestry individuals have a more favorable lipoprotein profi le than Caucasians, although the mechanisms for these differences remain unclear. We measured fasting serum lipoproteins and genotyped 768 tagging or potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across 33 candidate gene regions in 401 AfroCaribbeans older than 18 years belonging to 7 multi-generational pedigrees (mean family size 51, range 21-113, 3,426 relative pairs). All lipoproteins were signifi cantly heritable ( P < 0.05). Gender-specifi c analysis showed that heritability for triglycerides was much higher ( P < 0.01) in women than in men (women, 0.62 ± 0.18, P < 0.01; men, 0.13 ± 0.17, P > 0.10), but the heritability for LDL cholesterol ( LDL-C) was higher ( P < 0.05) in men than in women (men, 0.79 ± 0.21, P < 0.01; women, 0.39 ± 0.12, P < 0.01). The top 14 SNPs that passed the false discovery rate threshold in the families were then tested for replication in an independent population-based sample of 1,750 Afro-Caribbean men aged 40+ years. Our results revealed signifi cant associations for three SNPs in two genes (rs5929 and rs6511720 in LDLR and rs7517090 in PCSK9 ) and LDL-C in both the family study and in the replication study. Our fi ndings suggest that LDLR and PCSK9 variants may contribute to a variation in LDL-C among African ancestry individuals.