Prevention of Atherosclerosis from the Aspect of the Geneticist

Overview

Atherosclerosis is very frequent disease, which is caused by mutation of many genes and is alsoinfluenced by environmental factors and by lifestyle. Some concrete genes were alreadydiscovered the mutations of which cause or promote atherosclerosis: defect of LDLR for LDL;defect of lipoprotein B-APOB; „non-LDLR/non APOB“; gene for angiotensin ACE/ID. The mostfrequent mutation which plays a role at the beginning of atherosclerosis is deletion of the LDLRgene. Gene therapy is not yet possible, therefore it is most important to look for environmentalfactors, which support the development of atherosclerosis. Up to now the following are knownlow fat diet, non-smoking, occupational without major stress and others are under study.

Key words:
atherosclerosis - prevention - genes - lifestyle.