The Genetic, Protein, and Lipid Basis of Variation in Cholesterol Efflux

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

The mechanisms that underlie variation in cholesterol efflux are unknown. There is a critical need to identify factors that regulate cholesterol efflux to effectively advance the clinical development of cholesterol efflux as both a risk prediction marker and as a target of therapy. The investigator'...

The mechanisms that underlie variation in cholesterol efflux are unknown. There is a critical need to identify factors that regulate cholesterol efflux to effectively advance the clinical development of cholesterol efflux as both a risk prediction marker and as a target of therapy. The investigator's long-term goal is to determine whether modulating cholesterol efflux prevents or reverses cardiovascular disease. The overall objective of this study is to systematically create a family pedigree and biobank repository of blood and DNA from participants from the Dallas Heart Study with extreme low or high cholesterol efflux, with the specific aims of : 1) determining the heritability of and genomic factors associated with cholesterol efflux, and 2) identifying the protein and lipid signature of extreme low and high cholesterol efflux in a sex- and ethnicity-specific manner. The investigator's central hypothesis is that a combination of genetic variation in lipid transporters as well as proteins and lipids will be most strongly correlated with variation in efflux. DHS probands and their relatives (parents, siblings, adult children, grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins) with extreme low or high cholesterol efflux will be recruited to establish a prospective family pedigree cohort and understand the heritability of extreme cholesterol efflux. Investigators will collect the following information from all participants: demographics, health history, lifestyle measures, and medications. Blood will be collected on-site by venipuncture and plasma, serum, and cells will be stored at -80o Celsius. All efflux measurements will be completed in the investigator's laboratory.

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