A previously unreported impact of a PLA2G7 gene polymorphism on the plasma levels of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 activity and mass

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) levels are associated with the development of atherosclerosis. We aimed to assess the genetic determinants of Lp-PLA2 activity and mass by genotyping multiple polymorphisms in PLA2G7, the gene encoding Lp-PLA2, among 1258 participants from the Chinese Multi-provincial Cohort Study-Beijing Project. The Sequenom MassARRAY system, Taqman assay and direct sequencing were adopted. For the first time, the rs13218408 polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with reduced Lp-PLA2 levels. We also confirmed the significant association of previously validated polymorphisms (rs1421378, rs1805018, rs16874954 and rs2216465), even after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and for Bonferroni correction. Percentages of variance attributable to rs13218408 were 7.2% for activity and 13.3% for mass, and were secondary to those of rs16874954 (8.1% for activity and 16.9% for mass). A significant joint effect of rs13218408 and rs16874954 was observed on Lp-PLA2 activity (P = 0.058) and mass (P = 0.003), with their minor alleles together linking to the largest reduction in Lp-PLA2 levels (37.8% reduction in activity and 41.6% reduction in mass). Taken together, our findings show a significant association of a PLA2G7 polymorphism with Lp-PLA2 levels, which was previously unreported in any population. The functionality of this genetic variation deserves further investigations.