Common variants associated with plasma triglycerides and risk for coronary artery disease

Abstract

Triglycerides are transported in plasma by specific triglyceride-rich lipoproteins; in epidemiological studies, increased triglyceride levels correlate with higher risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it is unclear whether this association reflects causal processes. We used 185 common variants recently mapped for plasma lipids (P < 5 × 10−8 for each) to examine the role of triglycerides in risk for CAD. First, we highlight loci associated with both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels, and we show that the direction and magnitude of the associations with both traits are factors in determining CAD risk. Second, we consider loci with only a strong association with triglycerides and show that these loci are also associated with CAD. Finally, in a model accounting for effects on LDL-C and/or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, the strength of a polymorphism's effect on triglyceride levels is correlated with the magnitude of its effect on CAD risk. These results suggest that triglyceride-rich lipoproteins causally influence risk for CAD.

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Affiliated Institutions

• Science for Life Laboratory SE
• Institute of Genetics and Cancer GB
• Harokopio University of Athens GR
• Harvard University US
• University of Dundee GB
• Universität Ulm DE
• University of California, Los Angeles US
• Johns Hopkins Medicine US
• Ninewells Hospital GB
• Umeå University SE
• University of Milano-Bicocca IT
• King's College London GB
• Medical Research Council GB
• University College London GB
• Helmholtz Zentrum München DE
• Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam NL
• University of Groningen NL
• University of Pennsylvania US
• University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center US
• MedStar Health US
• Broad Institute US
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill US
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center US
• Michigan Medicine US
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München DE
• Addenbrooke's Hospital GB
• Karolinska Institutet SE
• MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing GB
• University of Edinburgh GB
• National Human Genome Research Institute US
• Massachusetts General Hospital US
• deCODE Genetics (Iceland) IS
• Tri-Service General Hospital TW
• Oulu University Hospital FI
• Centre for Human Genetics GB
• Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FI
• University of Oulu FI
• Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare FI
• Imperial College London GB
• Uppsala University SE
• University of Helsinki FI
• Ealing Hospital GB
• Fimlab (Finland) FI
• Brigham and Women's Hospital US
• Uganda Virus Research Institute UG
• University of Cambridge GB
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston US
• National Institute for Health Research GB
• National Institute on Aging US
• University of Oxford GB
• Lund University SE
• Eurac Research IT
• University Medical Center Groningen NL
• National Health Service GB
• National Defense Medical Center TW
• Erasmus MC NL
• Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research IT
• Tampere University FI
• Zimmer Biomet (Germany) DE
• Western General Hospital GB
• National Institutes of Health US
• University of Maryland, Baltimore US
• Scania (Sweden) SE
• Center for Human Genetics US
• Karolinska University Hospital SE
• National Health Research Institutes TW
• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center US
• William Harvey Research Institute GB
• Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism GB
• Queen Mary University of London GB
• HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology US
• University of Michigan US
• University Hospital of Geneva CH
• MRC Epidemiology Unit GB
• Wellcome Sanger Institute GB
• Johns Hopkins University US
• University of Tartu EE
• Washington University in St. Louis US
• Translational Therapeutics (United States) US
• University of Lausanne CH

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