Technical Report No. 14-91
A longitudinal study of the association between ABO blood phenotype and total serum cholesterol level in the Adult Health Study, 1958-86
Wong FL, Kodama K, Sasaki H, Yamada M, Hamilton HBEditor’s note: A publication based on this report was published in Genet Epidemiol 9:405-18, 1992.
Summary
This study examined the relationship between ABO blood phenotype and total serum cholesterol level in a Japanese population to determine whether an elevated cholesterol level is associated with phenotype A, as has been demonstrated consistently in many West-European populations. Studies of this nature in nonwhite populations are scarce; available findings have generally failed to demonstrate the relationship, suggesting racial heterogeneity. Cross-sectional data of various racial groups with age categories ranging from neonates to adults exhibit varying results, including nonsignificant ABO-cholesterol associations and raise the question of an age effect as a possible explanation for the discrepancies. It has also been suggested that the ABO-cholesterol association may not be apparent in populations with low fat intake or low mean cholesterol level. We addressed these hypotheses by examining long-term data on total serum cholesterol level collected serially from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were participants of the Adult Health Study program at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission-Radiation Effects Research Foundation between 1958 and 1986. A longitudinal statistical method of growth-curve analysis for serially measured response was used to model age-dependent changes in cholesterol levels within individuals. The effects of the ABO polymorphism in modifying the resultant growth curve were examined. We demonstrated that total serum cholesterol levels were elevated on average by about 4 mg/dL in phenotype A compared to non-A phenotypes in the Japanese (p = .027) and that this relationship is maintained from early to late adulthood. Thus, phenotype-A individuals may be predisposed to cardiovascular disease through one of its major risk factors. This is the first study of the ABO-cholesterol association in the Japanese and the first based on a cohort with longitudinally collected total serum cholesterol data.
This study examined the relationship between ABO blood phenotype and total serum cholesterol level in a Japanese population to determine whether an elevated cholesterol level is associated with phenotype A, as has been demonstrated consistently in many West-European populations. Studies of this nature in nonwhite populations are scarce; available findings have generally failed to demonstrate the relationship, suggesting racial heterogeneity. Cross-sectional data of various racial groups with age categories ranging from neonates to adults exhibit varying results, including nonsignificant ABO-cholesterol associations and raise the question of an age effect as a possible explanation for the discrepancies. It has also been suggested that the ABO-cholesterol association may not be apparent in populations with low fat intake or low mean cholesterol level. We addressed these hypotheses by examining long-term data on total serum cholesterol level collected serially from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were participants of the Adult Health Study program at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission-Radiation Effects Research Foundation between 1958 and 1986. A longitudinal statistical method of growth-curve analysis for serially measured response was used to model age-dependent changes in cholesterol levels within individuals. The effects of the ABO polymorphism in modifying the resultant growth curve were examined. We demonstrated that total serum cholesterol levels were elevated on average by about 4 mg/dL in phenotype A compared to non-A phenotypes in the Japanese (p = .027) and that this relationship is maintained from early to late adulthood. Thus, phenotype-A individuals may be predisposed to cardiovascular disease through one of its major risk factors. This is the first study of the ABO-cholesterol association in the Japanese and the first based on a cohort with longitudinally collected total serum cholesterol data.