Insulin Resistance in Turks

In many populations, there is an association between insulin resistance and low HDL-C levels that is accompanied by hypertriglyceridemia and elevated total cholesterol: HDL-C ratios. This so-called metabolic syndrome is thought to be due to reduced sensitivity to insulin and is associated with substantially increased risk of CHD. In Turkey, insulin resistance occurs on a familial basis, and the data from the 10,000 subjects of the Turkish Heart Study have allowed us to identify probands for family genetic studies. Using criteria of hypertriglyceridemia (values above the 75th percentile by age) and HDL-C levels below 40 mg/dl (women) or 35 mg/dl (men), we have begun to identify affected sibling pairs and affected groups of parents and children for a study of Turkish kindreds. The blood lipid, insulin, and glucose parameters and anthropometric data will be correlated with the data generated from genomic analyses. It is our hope that genetic polymorphisms associated with low HDL-C and hypertriglyceridemia will allow identification of the gene(s) responsible for insulin resistance. Since these studies were initiated in January 2000, we have collected data from several large kindreds. One family includes 172 individuals in four generations, 81 affected individuals, and 66 sibling pairs. It is reasonable to assume that study of this family alone might provide significant insight into the genetic mechanism(s) responsible for the insulin resistance syndrome.

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