Associations of genetic variants of lysophosphatidylcholine metabolic enzymes with levels of serum lipids.

OBJECTIVE: Metabolic disturbance of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is related with dyslipidemia. Therefore, eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected from LPC metabolic enzymes to study their associations with obesity and serum levels of lipids. METHODS: A total of 3305 children were recruited from four independent studies. Eight SNPs of LPC metabolic enzymes were selected and genotyped with the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). The multivariable linear regression model was applied to detect the associations of eight SNPs with obesity-related phenotypes and levels of lipids in each study. Meta-analyses were used to combine the results of four studies. RESULTS: Only SNP rs4420638 of APOC-1 gene was associated with serum lipids even after Bonferroni correction. The rs4420638 was positively associated with TC (ß = 0.15, P = 8.59 × 10-9) and low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C, ß = 0.16, P = 9.98 × 10-14) individually. CONCLUSION: The study firstly revealed the association between APOC-1/rs4420638 and levels of serum lipids in Chinese children, providing evidence for susceptible gene variants of dyslipidemia.