We studied the response to treatment with fluvastatin in 28 patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia as a result of a receptor-negative mutation (Trp23-stop) and in 30 patients with a receptor-binding defective mutation (Trp66-Gly) to test the hypothesis that response to treatment depends on the type of mutation.
To measure LDL receptor activity in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), we prepared peripheral blood mononuclear cells from individuals with molecularly verified LDL receptor defective (Trp66-Gly mutation, n = 18) or receptor negative (Trp23-stop mutation, n = 17) heterozygous FH and from healthy individuals (n = 24).
We prepared peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with genetically verified LDL receptor-defective (Trp66-Gly mutation, n = 17) or receptor-negative (Trp23-stop mutation, n = 17) heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and from healthy individuals (n = 24).
In 20 apparently unrelated Danish patients with a clinical diagnosis of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), we identified 13 different mutations in the LDL receptor gene: two silent (C331C, N494 N); five missense (W66G, E119K, T383P, W556S, T7051); one nonsense (W23X); three splice-site (313 + 1G-->A, 1061-8T-->C, 1846-1G-->A); and two frameshift (335del10, 1650delG) mutations.