Study suggests gene may turn 'good' cholesterol into 'bad'

ConclusionThis study has built on previous observations that having very high levels of HDL – or "good" – cholesterol may not be as protective against heart and vascular disease as you'd assume. The study suggests that some people may have very high HDL cholesterol levels because they have an unusual variant of the SCARB1 gene, which normally codes for the receptor that picks up HDL cholesterol. The P376L variant of the gene was associated with the complete loss of function of this receptor. However, this study alone doesn't provide firm evidence of what effect this gene variant and high HDL cholesterol levels have on heart disease. Of the 328 people included in this study, only one of them was found to have two abnormal copies of the SCARB1 gene. The woman had some evidence of fatty cholesterol deposits in her carotid arteries, but this finding in one person hardly counts as strong evidence that this gene variant, or high HDL in general, causes an increased risk of heart disease.None of the eight people with one abnormal copy of the gene were found to have any evidence of heart disease. The researchers did recognise the poor strength of evidence, so they boosted their findings by pooling data collected in other genetics studies. This finding seems to suggest that carrying one or two copies of the P376L variant of the SCARB1 gene may be associated with the presence of heart disease, but doesn't prove the variant is directly causing the increase in risk.But i...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Genetics/stem cells Source Type: news