Background: Hei Yi (which means "black worship" and "black dressing") Zhuang is a specific subgroup of the Zhuang nationality in China. Little is known about the relationship between genetic factors and lipid profiles in this population. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to compare the effects of lipoprotein lipase gene polymorphism at the PvuII locus on lipid levels in the Guangxi Hei Yi Zhuang and Han populations.
Methods: A total of 325 Hei Yi Zhuang subjects aged from 20 to 80 years were surveyed using stratified randomized cluster sampling. Serum levels of lipids and apolipoproteins were measured. Gene polymorphism was determined using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. The results were compared with those for 331 matched Han subjects living in the same district.
Results: Serum levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B were significantly lower in Hei Yi Zhuang than in Han subjects (p<0.05-0.01), whereas the levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the ratio of apolipoprotein A1 to apolipoprotein B were significantly higher in Hei Yi Zhuang than in Han subjects (both p<0.01). The allelic frequencies for P+ and P- were 52.92% and 47.08% in Hei Yi Zhuang, and 58.46% and 41.54% in Han subjects (p<0.05), respectively. The frequencies of P+P+, P+P- and P-P- genotypes were 23.08%, 59.69% and 17.23% in Hei Yi Zhuang, and 29.31%, 58.31% and 12.38% in Han subjects (p>0.05), respectively. There were no significant differences or no significant correlation between serum lipid parameters and genotypes in Hei Yi Zhuang or Han subjects, or for the combined population of Hei Yi Zhuang and Han (all p>0.05).
Conclusions: The allelic frequencies of the lipoprotein lipase gene at the PvuII locus in Hei Yi Zhuang were different from those in Han subjects, but the genotypic frequencies in Hei Yi Zhuang subjects were not different from those in Han subjects. There was no significant correlation between polymorphism of the lipoprotein lipase gene at the PvuII site and serum lipid levels in the two ethnic groups.