Comparative gene map of hypertriglyceridaemia.

Elevated triglyceride levels in the circulation are currently recognized as an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. Hypertriglyceridaemia represents one of the attributes of metabolic syndrome and is present in the most common genetic dyslipidaemia, the familial combined hyperlipidaemia. The factual concentration of triglycerides is determined by a complex interaction of environmental and genetic components. Deeper understanding of the causative gene variants and the mode of their participation in the pathogenesis of hypertriglyceridaemia is required for devising efficient therapy of hypertriglyceridaemia. This is the first systematic review of linkage and candidate gene studies dealing with the dissection of genetic determinants of (hyper)triglyceridaemia in human and two major mammalian model species, mouse and rat. Based on the merged sets of data, a synthetic view of the genetic component of triglyceridaemia, the "hypertriglyceridaemia gene map", is presented.