| Research Abstract |
Common diseases, such as coronary heart disease, essential hypertension, and diabetes mellitus are generally agreed to be multifactorial disease. In susceptible individuals, it is likely that environmental factors interact with multiple genetic determinants to develop symptom (s). Identifying the responsible genes would not only provide clues about the pathogenesis of the diseases, but also enable identification of subjects at genetically high risk for the disease for whom preventive measures could then be taken.
After identifying responsible genes, we have to know the mechanism of an interplay between genetic and environmental factors, and then to know what kind of environmental factor (s) should be modified to prevent the onset of the diseases. For this purspose, a large scale prospective population is essential. In this study, we planned to use about 12,000 workers of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone corporation (NTT) of Hokkaido area in Japan. To characterize this population, we analyzed the ratio of individuals who have risk factors for ischemic heart disease, namely smoking, obesity, hypertension, abnormality of glucose tolerance, and hyperlipidemia. Smoking (60%), hyperlipidemia (30%), and obesity (25%) for men, and hyperlipidemia (30%), smoking (25%), and hypertension (15%) for women were revealed to be three major factors. We also analyzed life-style factors in detail by questionnaires. We are planning to draw blood samples for genetic analyzes with informed consent for the future analyzes.
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