Association of serum lipids and apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism with the risk of colorectal adenomas

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of serum lipids and apolipoprotein (apoE) gene polymorphism to colorectal adenomas. METHODS: This study took place in the Department of Gastroenterology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, PR China from June 2003 to March 2005. Ninety-eight patients with colorectal adenomas and 40 healthy subjects were enrolled, and their serum levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were determined. The apoE gene polymorphism was identified by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS: Serum TC levels of colorectal adenomas group (5.32 ± 0.85 mmol/L), distal colorectal adenomas group (5.58 ± 0.63 mmol/L), and villous adenoma group (5.49 ± 0.69 mmol/L) were higher than the control group (4.28 ± 0.62 mmol/L, p=0.016), proximal colorectal adenomas group (4.82 ± 0.58 mmol/L, p=0.038) and non-villous adenoma group (4.76 ± 0.58 mmol/L, p=0.03). Serum HDL-C levels of colorectal adenomas group (1.39 ± 0.25 mmol/L) were lower than the control group (1.51 ± 0.29 mmol/L) (p=0.035). Serum lipids levels of each genotype in colorectal adenomas group were not statistically significant. Apolipoprotein E3/E4 genotypic frequency in colorectal adenomas group (7.1%) was lower than the control group (17.5%) (p=0.012). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that altered lipid metabolism may be differentially associated with colorectal adenomas and the persons with apoE E3/E4 genotype have lower risk suffering from colorectal adenomas than those with other genotypes.