This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 22/7/1142    most recent 01.ATV.0000022889.85440.79v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Middelberg, R. P.S. Articles by Snieder, H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Middelberg, R. P.S. Articles by Snieder, H. Related Collections Lipids Genetics of cardiovascular disease Risk Factors Physiological and pathological control of gene expression Quantitative modeling

(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2002;22:1142.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Atherosclerosis and Lipoproteins

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Lipids, Lipoproteins, and Apolipoproteins

Effects of Menopause

Rita P.S. Middelberg; Tim D. Spector; Ramasamyiyer Swaminathan; Harold Snieder

From the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit (R.P.S.M., T.D.S., H.S.) and the Department of Chemical Pathology (R.S.), St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK; Gemini Genomics (R.P.S.M.), Cambridge, UK; and the Georgia Prevention Institute (H.S.), Medical College of Georgia, Augusta.

Reprint requests to Dr Harold Snieder, Georgia Prevention Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Building HS-1640, Augusta, GA 30912-3700. E-mail hsnieder{at}mcg.edu

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.

Conclusions— These findings imply that genetic studies of lipids can pool results from premenopausal and postmenopausal women and that family-based interventions, such as changes in diet, are more likely to succeed in younger women, in whom the environmental influences are greater.

Key Words: lipids • genetics • twin study • menopause

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. M. Kim, J. Park, S. Y. Ryu, and J. Kim The Effect of Menopause on the Metabolic Syndrome Among Korean Women: The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001 Diabetes Care, March 1, 2007; 30(3): 701 - 706. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N J Spencer-Jones, D Ge, H Snieder, U Perks, R Swaminathan, T D Spector, N D Carter, and S D O'Dell AMP-kinase {alpha}2 subunit gene PRKAA2 variants are associated with total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol in normal women J. Med. Genet., December 1, 2006; 43(12): 936 - 942. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. H. M. Liew, C. E. Gilbert, T. D. Spector, J. Mellerio, J. Marshall, F. J. van Kuijk, S. Beatty, F. Fitzke, and C. J. Hammond Heritability of Macular Pigment: A Twin Study Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., December 1, 2005; 46(12): 4430 - 4436. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. J. Spencer-Jones, X. Wang, H. Snieder, T. D. Spector, N. D. Carter, and S. D. O'Dell Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase-1B Gene PTPN1: Selection of Tagging Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Association With Body Fat, Insulin Sensitivity, and the Metabolic Syndrome in a Normal Female Population Diabetes, November 1, 2005; 54(11): 3296 - 3304. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Falchi, T. Andrew, H. Snieder, R. Swaminathan, G. L. Surdulescu, and T. D. Spector Identification of QTLs for serum lipid levels in a female sib-pair cohort: a novel application to improve the power of two-locus linkage analysis Hum. Mol. Genet., October 15, 2005; 14(20): 2971 - 2979. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				F. L. Sciacca, E. Ciusani, A. Silvani, E. Corsini, S. Frigerio, S. Pogliani, E. Parati, D. Croci, A. Boiardi, and A. Salmaggi Genetic and Plasma Markers of Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with High Grade Glioma Clin. Cancer Res., February 15, 2004; 10(4): 1312 - 1317. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. R. Greenfield, K. Samaras, L. V. Campbell, A. B. Jenkins, P. J. Kelly, T. D. Spector, and C. S. Hayward Physical activity reduces genetic susceptibility to increased central systolic pressure augmentation: a study of female twins J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., July 16, 2003; 42(2): 264 - 270. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]