interaction in ischaemic heart disease?

Association studies between gene variants (polymorph-isms) and measured intermediate phenotypes (such as lipid/lipoprotein levels), or disease phenotypes (such as ischaemic heart disease (IHD)) are increasingly common in the literature. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that classical risk factors for IHD, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidaemia, are polygenic traits, and their interaction with envir-onment factors (such as diet, lifestyle, occupational, socioeconomic factors, etc.) are important in determin-ing their phenotypic expression. A gene–environment interaction denotes the notion that different genotypes respond differently to exposure to similar environmental risk factors; thus, genes that do not affect the mean expression of a trait may increas