Relation of lipid gene scores to longitudinal trends in lipid levels and incidence of abnormal lipid levels among individuals of european ancestry the atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) study

Background —Multiple genetic loci have been associated with blood lipid levels. We tested the hypothesis that people with an unfavorable lipid gene profile would experience a greater increase in lipid levels and a higher incidence of abnormal lipid levels, relative to those with more favorable lipid gene profiles. Methods and Results —9,328 European-descent individuals in ARIC (ages 45-64 y) were followed for 9 years. Separate gene scores were created for each lipid phenotype based on 95 loci identified in a published GWAS of >100,000 European-descent individuals. Adjusted linear and survival models were used to estimate associations with lipid levels and incidence of lipid-lowering medication or abnormal lipid levels. Age and sex interactions were also explored. The cross-sectional difference (mg/dL) per one standard deviation (SD) was -1.89 for HDL-C, 9.5 for LDL-C, and 22.8 for triglycerides (p -34 for all). Longitudinally, overall triglyceride levels rose over time, and each SD greater triglyceride gene score was associated with an average increase in triglyceride levels of 0.3 mg/dL (p=0.003) over 3-years. The HDL-C, LDL-C and total cholesterol gene scores were not related to change. All lipid gene scores were positively related to incidence of abnormal lipid levels over follow-up (HRs per SD ranged from 1.15-1.36). Conclusions —Associations of genetic variants with lipid levels over time are complex, with the triglyceride gene score positively related to change in triglycerides levels. Similar longitudinal results were not observed for LDL-C or HDL-C levels. Unfavorable gene scores were nevertheless related to higher incidence of abnormal levels.