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We studied 22 normal-weight patients with polygenic hypercholesterolemia (PH), of which 11 (two males and nine females) had the apolipoprotein (apo) E3/4 genotype and 11 (one male and 10 females) the E3/3 genotype. The two groups were comparable for age, body mass index, total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The diagnosis of PH was made on the basis of clinical assessment, the criteria being type IIa hypercholesterolemia without tendon xanthomas and/or family history and clinical criteria indicative of familial hypercholesterolemia and/or familial combined hyperlipidemia. To avoid the influence of the habitual individual diet on cholesterogenesis, daily urinary mevalonic acid (MVA) excretion, an index of whole-body cholesterol synthesis, was evaluated in the steady-state condition while patients were on a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet for at least 3 months. Urinary MVA excretion rates were 2.52 +/- 0.8 micromol/24 h in E3/4 patients, significantly higher (P < .001) than in E3/3 patients (1.38 +/- 0.6 micromol/24 h). This is the first evidence of a higher rate of cholesterogenesis in PH patients carrying the epsilon4 allele versus the epsilon3 allele under a standardized lipid-lowering diet. We conclude that the higher rate of cholesterogenesis in PH patients with the epsilon4 allele might partly explain the interindividual differences in response to treatment with cholesterol synthesis inhibitors such as statins.

Familial defective apolipoprotein (apo) B-100 is a genetic trait characterized by an Arg----Gln substitution in position 3500 of the apo B sequence. This genetic defect is associated with greatly increased concentrations of plasma cholesterol and may thus increase the risk of developing premature atherosclerotic disease. We describe here the use of mutagenic polymerase chain reaction primers, which greatly facilitate identification of carriers of this mutation. Moreover, we demonstrate that this method may also be used for determining the phase between two polymorphic sites. Using apo B-100 as an example we located on different chromosomes the defect in codon 3500 and a mutation in codon 3611, which produces another Arg----Gln change in the encoded apo B-100 amino acid sequence, in two probands heterozygous for both mutations.