| Effects of apolipoprotein and low density lipoprotein receptor gene polymorphisms on lipid metabolism, and the lipid risk factors of coronary artery disease | ||
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Females have been reported to have both higher (Marcel et al. 1990) or similar (Savolainen et al. 1990) CETP levels compared with males, and we found the basal CETP activity to be high in females.
CETP activity correlated well with the pre-treatment total and LDL cholesterol concentrations and with the lovastatin-induced decrease in LDL cholesterol, but only in the patients without the apo E 4 allele. The effect of apo E 4 on lipoprotein metabolism seems to mask the correlation between CETP activity and LDL cholesterol concentration as well as the drug-induced lowering of LDL cholesterol. One mechanism by which apo E might increase the CETP-mediated cholesteryl ester and triglyceride transfer between VLDL and HDL can be the enhanced affinity of CETP for VLDL (Kinoshita et al. 1993).