Background: Estrogens influence many physiological processes including cardiovascular health. Polymorphisms in phase I and II estrogen metabolism enzymes are associated with lipid levels in women.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 269 postmenopausal women, 116 who received oral hormonal therapy (HT) (39-75 years) with estrogens or estrogens plus progestagen, 153 that did not receive any HT (38-85 years), and 155 premenopausal women (18-52 years). Polymorphisms in UGT1A1 (rs5839491) and SULT1A1 (rs1042028) were analysed by PCR-based methods. Adjusted lipid levels means were compared among genotypes by one-way analysis of variance, with corrections for multiple testing.
Results: The UGT1A1*28 polymorphism was associated with total cholesterol (T-chol) (p = 0.030; corrected p = 0.060) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (p = 0.011, corrected p = 0.022) in premenopausal women. The premenopausal and postmenopausal women, both carriers of SULT1A1*2/*2, had lower levels of T-chol and LDL-C means than carriers of the SULT1A1*1/*1 (p = 0.004, corrected p = 0.008 and 0.009, corrected p = 0.018, respectively).
Conclusion: The data showed the presence of an association between the UGT1A1*28/*28 and SULT1A1*2/*2 and T-chol and LDL-C levels in women with different hormonal status. No previous studies investigated the association of the polymorphisms examined in this study with lipoprotein levels in women separately by hormonal status.