How may genetic and epigenetic phenomena influence cardiovascular risk Essay

How may genetic and epigenetic phenomena influence cardiovascular risk by altering the pathophysiology of plasma lipoproteins - Essay Example The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is also increasing because of the trend of aging of the population (Rayner and Petersen 2008). One of the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases is high cholesterol and saturated fat that is incorporated in significant amounts in everyday diet (Emberson et al. 2003). Programs for saturated fat reduction in the diet in the general population has lead to significant improvement of cholesterol levels in the population of Finland for example, where the program for saturated fat reduction in everyday’s diet lead to significant reduction of the incidence of cardiovascular diseases (Laatikainen et al. 2005). Introduction of effective treatment of dyslipidemia is another factor that can significantly reduce the incidence of morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases. ... ations influence the level of blood lipids within one individual, but also the personal diet has important influence of the effectiveness of statins and other pharmaceuticals (Kajinami et al. 2005). The metabolism of lipids in the organism is complex and is managed by multiple organs and systems. The main lipids in the human organism are the free and esterified cholesterol and triglycerides. Reabsorption of triglycerides starts in enterocytes with the transporters of fatty acids. In the enterocytes fatty acids are then reconstructed into triglycerides and organized with C ester and apolipoproten B48 into chylomicrons by microsomal trygliceride transfer protein (MTTP). This protein is important in normal transport and resorption of triglycerides. Defects in this protein can lead to inherited disease characterized with very low levels of low density lipoproteins LDL called abetalipoproteinemia (Tarugi et al. 2007). But also genetic variations of this protein which is very important in production of chylomicrons in the intestine and VLDL in the liver, are found to be important in the incidence of dyslipidemia in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients (Chen et al 2003). In the study conducted by Chen et al 2003, using gene sequencing they studied the influence of MTTP gene polymorphism and its influence on the triglyceride levels in diabetic patients. It was found that the so called MTTP-493 TT variation of the gene was associated with increased triglyceride and VLDL levels and smaller LDL particle size. In this study we can see that a gene variation is found to be directly connected to elevated triglycerides levels in the blood. But the second important finding in this study was the fact that the same group of individuals had findings of smaller size LDL particles, finding