A genetic study in England revealed that the association between a genetically determined shorter height and an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) is partly explained by the association between shorter height and an adverse lipid profile. The study tested the association between a change in genetically determined height of 1 SD (6.5 cm) with the risk of CAD in 65,066 cases and 128,383 controls, examined the risk of CAD associated with the presence of various numbers of height-associated alleles by using individual-level genotype data from 18,249 persons. There was a relative increase of 13.5% in the risk of CAD per 1-SD decrease in genetically determined height as well as a graded relationship between the presence of an increased number of height-raising variants and a reduced risk of CAD. The study identified significant associations of the risk with levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, several overlapping pathways involving genes associated with both development and atherosclerosis, suggest shared biologic processes that determine achieved height and the development of atherosclerosis may explain some of the association. Source: http://www.nejm.org/ 一项英格兰的遗传研究显示，身高较低与不利的血脂有关部分地解释了由遗传决定的较低的身高和冠心病风险增加之间的关系。该研究测试了65066例冠心病患者和128383例对照者中1个标准差（6.5厘米）的身高差别与冠心病风险之间的关系，并利用18249人的个体基因型数据检测了许多和身高相关等位基因的存在与冠心病风险的关系。每1个标准差的的身高降低有13.5％冠心病风险的相对增加，且有身高增加变体数量增多与冠心病风险降低之间存在不同程度的关系。该研究确定了冠心病风险与低密度脂蛋白胆固醇和甘油三酯水平，与涉及发育和动脉粥样硬化相关基因重叠的生物学途径显著相关，提示决定身高和动脉粥样硬化发生所共有的一些生物学步骤可解释这一联系。来源：http://www.nejm.org/
