Effect of apolipoprotein E gene Hha I restricting fragment length polymorphism on serum lipids in cholecystolithiasis.

AIM:To investigate the role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism in the lithogenesis of gallstone and the hereditary pathogenesis of the disease.
METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to study apoE phenotypes and allele frequencies in patients with gallstones and control, and the fasting serum lipids of subjects were also measured by enzymatic methods.
RESULTS: The levels of triglyceride (TG) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) were much higher in E(2/3) patients than that in E(2/3) control. E(3/3) patients were accompanied with remarkably low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and its subforms.But in E(3/4) patients there were only slight changes in levels of VLDL-C and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).
CONCLUSION: Different apoE phenotype patients with gallstones have different cheracteristics of dyslipidemia and the average level of serum lipids in patients with gallstones are higher than subjects without gallstones in the same apoE gene phenotype.epsilon2 allele is possibly one of the dangerous factors in the lithogenesis of cholecystolithiasis.