Background and aims: To examine whether the association between the -514 C/T polymorphism of the hepatic lipase gene and myocardial infarction (MI) is modified by history of hypercholesterolemia and increased waist circumference.
Methods and results: A total of 1940 pairs of nonfatal MI cases and population-based controls were genotyped. Multiple conditional logistic regression was used for data analyses. The -514T variant was not associated with MI in the whole population. However, among people with history of hypercholesterolemia the T allele increased MI risk for heterozygous and homozygous carriers, respectively [OR=1.25 (95%CI=0.92-1.70) and OR=1.59 (95%CI=1.09-2.32). In contrast, the T allele decreased MI risk among people with no history of hypercholesterolemia [OR=0.85 (95%CI=0.70-1.03) and OR=0.76 (95%CI=0.60-0.97)], p for interaction=0.004. Among subjects with normal waist circumference there was no association between the -514T allele and MI for heterozygous and homozygous carriers, respectively [OR=1.04 (95%CI=0.86-1.25) and OR=0.96 (95%CI=0.77-1.21)], while among subjects with waist circumference above the limits of the metabolic syndrome definition there was a protective association [OR=0.63 (95%CI=0.45-0.90) and OR=0.81 (95%CI=0.53-1.25) p for interaction=0.04].
Conclusion: The -514T allele is associated with MI in opposite directions depending on the background of the studied population. This could explain what seem like inconsistent results across studies.
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