The Genetic Basis of Dyslipidemias

Abstract

The idea that human disease, particularly cardiovascular disease and lipid disorders could be determined by some inherited component was already suspected in the past centuries. The recent emergence and expansion of molecular genetics has given plain and multiple evidence of its reality. Now genes may be used as single objects, dismantled by the direct analysis of their primary sequence on human DNA and grasped by the manipulation of their products (mRNA and proteins). The entire sequence of the human genome (and of other living organisms) readily accessible as universal patrimony, offers manifold opportunities to dissect the molecular basis of fundamental metabolic pathways and as a consequence of human disease.