Genetics of Dyslipidemia

Profound mortality rates, due to cardiovascular disease, are a worldwide problem. Cardiovascular disease results from complications of a silent and chronic arterial disease: atherosclerosis. The challenge for the practitioner is adapting diagnostic and therapeutic responses to prevent this common and complex disease. Dyslipidemia, are disorders of the metabolism of soluble transporters of lipids in extracellular spaces of the human body (including blood), called lipoproteins. They are major cardiovascular risk factors, causally related with atherosclerosis and are themselves multifactorial diseases, resulting from interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The study of genetic factors has recently taken a new path with the study of DNA as an experimental object. More than fifty genes of lipoprotein metabolism have been identified in both their physiological actions and their contribution to the pathogenesis of human dyslipidemia. The diversity of observations has refined our current knowledge of the control of lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis in living organisms beyond the limits of the cardiovascular system (e.g., brain, immune system, and development). These studies have given way to a shake-up of former phenotypic classifications, distinguishing new entities, defining targeted therapeutic strategies, providing a basis for different patterns of disease distribution in human populations.