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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2000;20:1854.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Lipids, Lipases, and Obesity

Does Race Matter?

Peter W. F. Wilson

From the Framingham Heart Study, Boston University School of Medicine, Framingham, Mass.

Correspondence to Peter W.F. Wilson, MD, Framingham Heart Study, Boston University School of Medicine, 5 Thurber St, Framingham, MA 01702. E-mail pwilson@bu.edu

Key Words: Editorials • lipids • lipases • obesity

For >20 years, researchers have reported that American blacks tend to have lower triglyceride and higher HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels compared with whites at a similar level of corpulence.^{1 2} Early studies focused on potential environmental explanations and concluded that differences in exercise, alcohol intake, leanness, and undernutrition did not readily account for the higher HDL-C levels.³ It was also noted that the propensity toward more favorable HDL-C and triglyceride levels was absent in highly educated blacks.⁴ More recent reports have shown that socioeconomic status was positively correlated with HDL-C in white men and women, a negative association was present in black men, and no association was evident in black women.⁵

Autopsy reports have also demonstrated differences in atherosclerosis in blacks versus whites. The Bogalusa Study⁶ reported that young blacks had more fatty streaks than did whites but that middle-aged blacks had less evidence of fibrous plaques. The authors concluded that the transition of fatty streaks to advanced atherosclerotic lesions may differ in whites and blacks.⁶ Similar results were obtained in the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth study,⁷ an autopsy investigation of young adults who died from trauma between the ages of 15 to 34 years. Adolescent blacks in that study had a greater extent of fatty streaks than did whites, but older blacks and whites had a similar extent of raised lesions.⁷

The associations of sex, race, obesity, and fat metabolism have been under intense study as coronary heart disease mortality has declined, but Americans have ballooned in size . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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				F. Bacha, R. Saad, N. Gungor, J. Janosky, and S. A. Arslanian Obesity, Regional Fat Distribution, and Syndrome X in Obese Black Versus White Adolescents: Race Differential in Diabetogenic and Atherogenic Risk Factors J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., June 1, 2003; 88(6): 2534 - 2540. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]