Abstract: Objective To investigate the impact of the lipoprotein lipase (LPL) S447Xmutation on the relationship between visceral obesity and serum lipids in a general population based twin cohort of China.Methods The twin subjects were collected based on the twin registry system of China.All twins were subjected to a standard questionnaire and physical examinations.PCR-RFLPmethod was used to detect the genotypes of S447Xmutation.Visceral obesity was classified as waist circumference ≥90 cm for male or ≥80 cm for female.Results Nine hundred and forty-one pairs of twins were eligible for analysis.TG, TG/HDLlevels were significantly higher in visceral obesity group than those in normal waist circumference group.In S447/S447 genotype, after stratification for genotype, TGand TG/HDLwere still higher in visceral obesity.However, for S447Xmutation genotype, there were no significant differences in these lipids.The interaction of S447Xmutation genotype and visceral obesity were statistically significant in HDLand TG/HDL.The genotype-environmental interactions were also tested in the visceral obesity discordant MZtwins.In S447/S447 genotype, twins with visceral obesity had significantly higher TGand TG/HDLthan normal waist circumference co-twin(increased 23.1% and 22.8% respectively).While in the S447Xmutation genotype, visceral obesity was related with lower TGand TG/HDL(decreased 4.5% and 16.1% respectively), and HDLincreased significantly (13.3%).Conclusion The results indicate that LPL S447Xmutation can modulate the relationship between visceral obesity and serum TG, HDLand TG/HDL.

Key words: lipids, visceral obesity, lipoprotein lipase, interaction, twin