“…Genetic variants of the SREBP-1 gene, on the other hand, have been associated with insulin resistance, risk for diabetes mellitus ( Laudes et al, 2004 ), obesity ( Eberle et al, 2004a ), atherosclerosis ( Vedie et al, 2001 ), and with elevated total and LDL cholesterol levels ( Laudes et al, 2004 ;Vedie et al, 2001 ) as well as with HIV-related hyperlipoproteinemia ( Miserez et al, 2001 ). However, these associations were refuted by other studies ( Yang et al, 2003 ;Rios et al, 2003 ). We have recently shown that a 54 G / C synonymous SNP in exon 18c (G952G, both alleles encode a glycine moiety) is associated with increased cholesterol synthesis but normal serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels in a Finnish population ( Laaksonen et al, 2006 ).…”