Variation in genetic and environmental influences in serum lipid and apolipoprotein levels across the lifespan in Swedish male and female twins

Iliadou, Anastasia; Lichtenstein, Paul; Fairé, Ulf dé; Pedersen, Nancy L.

doi:10.1002/1096-8628(20010722)102:1<48::aid-ajmg1388>3.0.co;2-4

Cited by 34 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The present study is the largest twin study to date investigating the relative contribution of genes and environment on lipids and apolipoproteins and is more than twice as large as the second largest twin study, which was published recently. 27 Thus, our results confirm that large sample sizes are needed to detect moderate influences of shared environment in twin studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lipids, Lipoproteins, and Apolipoproteins

Middelberg

Spector

Swaminathan

et al. 2002

ATVB

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Objective-Levels of lipids and (apo)lipoproteins are known to increase after menopause, but it is unknown whether the genetic and environmental variability alters or whether lipids and (apo)lipoproteins are influenced by different genes before and after menopause. Methods and Results-We studied 453 monozygotic and 1280 dizygotic pairs of female white twins recruited from the St. Thomas' UK Adult Twin Registry and measured total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), and apolipoprotein B (apoB).Variance components software was used to estimate genetic and environmental influences on serum lipid levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Total variance was higher for triglycerides, HDL, and apoB after menopause. Postmenopausal women showed larger genetic variance for most lipids, apart from apoB and Lp(a). In premenopausal females, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, apoA1, and apoB all showed an influence of the shared environment (22% to 34%), which, after menopause, decreased in HDL and completely disappeared in total cholesterol, LDL, and apoA1. Only for Lp(a), with a high heritability of 87%, did the same model fit premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Generally, there was no indication that different genes influence lipids before and after menopause. Key Words: lipids Ⅲ genetics Ⅲ twin study Ⅲ menopause P ostmenopausal women are 2 to 3 times more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than are premenopausal women. 1,2 Part of this increased risk is likely to be due to adverse changes in lipids and (apo)lipoproteins after menopause. Levels of total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, and apoB have been reported to increase, 3,4 probably (at least partly) because of a reduction in LDL receptor activity in response to the gradual decline in blood estrogen levels in the perimenopausal years. 5,6 Levels of lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins, which have been established as important predictors of atherosclerotic coronary disease, 7 vary considerably over a lifespan, and their phenotypic variance generally shows an increase with age. 8 -11 Such an increase in lipid and (apo)lipoprotein variance may be due to interindividual variation in the rise of lipid levels over time, and several studies now indicate that different genetic and/or environmental factors are likely to be involved at different ages. 10,12,13 Superimposed on the global change across the whole lifespan, 4 specific time periods are associated with more dramatic changes. Menopause is one of these; the others are old age, adolescence, and the first years after birth. Conclusions-TheseWe recently reviewed twin studies of lipids and (apo)lipoproteins and showed that most studies report heritability (h 2 ) estimates between 40% and 80% for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, apoA1, and apoB, with Lp(a) h 2 values of Ϸ90%. 11 Only one study, which reported on HDL alone, focused on the effect of menopause and found that postmenopausal m...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lipids, Lipoproteins, and Apolipoproteins

Middelberg

Spector

Swaminathan

et al. 2002

ATVB

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“…The importance of genetic factors explaining individual differences in lipid levels has been established in twin and family studies (Beekman et al, 2002;Iliadou et al, 2001;Iselius, 1979;Snieder et al, 1997). Heritabilities of lipids have been estimated between 50% and 80% for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides, but twin and family studies have almost exclusively involved Caucasians (Snieder et al, 1999).…”

Section: Twin Research and Human Genetics Volume 8 Number 5 Pp 492-498mentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritabilities of Lipids in Young European American and African American Twins

Iliadou

Snieder

Wang³

et al. 2005

twin res hum genet

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“…This increase in lipid variance could be due to greater genetic (or nongenetic) interindividual variations, or increasing variation within an individual. It has been claimed that the increase in cholesterol and apolipoprotein B variance with age is due mainly to an increase in unique environmental variance, probably due to the accumulation of environmental experiences throughout life (Iliadou et al, 2001).…”

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Longitudinal Genetic Analysis of Plasma Lipids

Middelberg¹,

Martin

Whitfield

2006

Twin Res Hum Genet

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The consensus from published studies is that plasma lipids are each influenced by genetic factors, and that this contributes to genetic variation in risk of cardiovascular disease. Heritability estimates for lipids and lipoproteins are in the range .48 to .87, when measured once per study participant. However, this ignores the confounding effects of biological variation measurement error and ageing, and a truer assessment of genetic effects on cardiovascular risk may be obtained from analysis of longitudinal twin or family data. We have analyzed information on plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides, from 415 adult twins who provided blood on two to five occasions over 10 to 17 years. Multivariate modeling of genetic and environmental contributions to variation within and across occasions was used to assess the extent to which genetic and environmental factors have long-term effects on plasma lipids. Results indicated that more than one genetic factor influenced HDL and LDL components of cholesterol, and triglycerides over time in all studies. Nonshared environmental factors did not have significant long-term effects except for HDL. We conclude that when heritability of lipid risk factors is estimated on only one occasion, the existence of biological variation and measurement errors leads to underestimation of the importance of genetic factors as a cause of variation in long-term risk within the population. In addition our data suggest that different genes may affect the risk profile at different ages.

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Variation in genetic and environmental influences in serum lipid and apolipoprotein levels across the lifespan in Swedish male and female twins

Cited by 34 publications

References 23 publications

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lipids, Lipoproteins, and Apolipoproteins

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lipids, Lipoproteins, and Apolipoproteins

Heritabilities of Lipids in Young European American and African American Twins

Longitudinal Genetic Analysis of Plasma Lipids

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