Dietary intake and gene variation influence the response of plasma lipids to dietary intervention

We have examined whether variation at the apolipoprotein (apo) B, apo E, apo AII, and apo AI‐CIII‐AIV genes affected the relationship between dietary intake and serum lipid traits in individuals who had participated in dietary intervention from a basal high fat diet to a low fat diet followed by a return to their natural diet, the switchback. On both the basal and switchback diets where the variance of dietary intake was great, there was a significant correlation between P/S ratio and serum total, low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and apo A1 levels. In addition dietary cholesterol (dchol) levels correlated significantly with serum apo A1 levels on the basal diet. Comparing the difference between basal and intervention (Δ1) and between switchback and intervention diets (Δ2), changes in dchol and P/S ratio correlated significantly with changes in serum total, high‐density lipo‐protein (HDL) and LDL cholesterol, and apo B levels. There was a significant correlation between monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and apo A1 levels during both changes. Furthermore we have examined whether the relationship between variables was homogeneous among genotypes of candidate gene polymorphisms. A heterogeneous effect (P < 0.01) was seen among genotypes of the PvuII‐AIV restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) on the correlation of serum LDL cholesterol levels and dietary MUFA during both dietary changes (Δ1 and Δ2). A heterogeneous effect among genotypes of the apo B XbaI RFLP on the correlation between dchol versus total and LDL cholesterol during the change Δ1, but not Δ2, was observed. Thus our results show that both dietary components and genetic variation affect the response of serum lipid, lipoprotein, and apolipoprotein levels to dietary change. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.