Apo B is the exclusive protein constituent of LDL and is ligand on LDL, recognized and bound by the LDL receptor. Several restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the apo B gene have been shown to be associated with variation in serum lipid levels in different populations. In this study we sought to determine the frequency of XbaI, EcoRI, and MspI polymorphisms and the haplotypes generated by these three polymorphic sites of the apo B gene and their influence on lipid levels in a sample of Norwegian subjects at risk of atherosclerosis and healthy control subjects.
108 White Norwegians at risk of atherosclerosis (cases) and 64 healthy individuals (controls) were examined for possible association between the alleles at the XbaI (X), EcoRI (R), and MspI (M) polymorphic restriction sites of the apolipoprotein B gene and serum lipid levels. The frequency of the M allele (absence of restriction site) was significantly higher in cases with high total cholesterol (TC), high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), and high apolipoprotein B (apo B) than in controls with normal TC, LDLC, and apo B (P