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Genetically elevated levels of circulating triglycerides and brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity in a Chinese population

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 27, pages 265–270 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Elevated levels of circulating triglycerides and increased arterial stiffness are associated with cardiovascular disease. Numerous studies have reported an association between levels of circulating triglycerides and arterial stiffness. We used Mendelian randomization to test whether this association is causal. We investigated the association between circulating triglyceride levels, the apolipoprotein A-V (ApoA5) –1131T>C single nucleotide polymorphism and brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) by examining data from 4421 subjects aged 18–74 years who were recruited from the Chinese population. baPWV was significantly associated with the levels of circulating triglycerides after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, heart rate, waist-to-hip ratio, antihypertensive treatment and diabetes mellitus status. The −1131C allele was associated with a 5% (95% confidence interval 3–8%) increase in circulating triglycerides (adjusted for age, sex, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, diabetes mellitus and antihypertensive treatment). Instrumental variable analysis showed that genetically elevated levels of circulating triglycerides were not associated with increased baPWV. These results do not support the hypothesis that levels of circulating triglycerides have a causal role in the development of arterial stiffness.

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Acknowledgements

The Gaoyou Study would not have been possible without the voluntary collaboration of the participants and the support of the local health bureau. This study was supported by grants from the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2007BAI07A10) and the Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Support Program (BE2009613).

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Author notes

  1. W-M Yao and H-F Zhang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

    W-M Yao, H-F Zhang, Z-Y Zhu, Y-L Zhou, N-X Liang, D-J Xu, F Zhou, Y-H Sheng, R Yang, K-J Cao & X-L Li

  2. The Health Bureau of Gaoyou, Jiangsu, China

    L Gong

  3. The Centre Clinics of Baoqiao, Gaoyou, Jiangsu, China

    Z-J Yin

  4. The Centre Clinics of Songqiao, Gaoyou, Jiangsu, China

    F-K Chen

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  1. W-M Yao
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Correspondence to X-L Li.

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Yao, WM., Zhang, HF., Zhu, ZY. et al. Genetically elevated levels of circulating triglycerides and brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity in a Chinese population. J Hum Hypertens 27, 265–270 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2012.23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2012.23

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