摘要：Summary. - The 8344C/T polymorphism of the apoB gene was genotyped by an original modification
of PCR allele-specific amplification consisting in a single amplification reaction double-primed by two
opposite allele-specific oligonucleotides nested in a larger amplified fragment. This method was used to
genotype 200 randomly selected healthy individuals (113 males, 87 females). The frequency of the rare allele
in this random Italian population was 0.240, i.e. not far from the 0.282 frequency observed in hypocholesterolemic
Norwegians and suggestive of a moderating effect on LDL levels of our population. However, we
did not find any significant cholesterol-lowering effect of this polymorphism either by comparing the
frequency of mutant alleles in the population stratified for its plasma lipoprotein levels or by studying the
association between ApoB genotype and the different lipoproteins. In conclusion this ApoB polymorphism
appeared to have a secondary role in LDL- and HDL-cholesterol variations of our population.
