Two recent publications from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) [l,2] echoed in international and national news agencies [Agence France-Presse (AFP), Dallas News]. The AFP journalist highlighted the importance of high triglycerides level, but not low levels of HDL cholesterol, as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Are HDL levels actually not relevant for CVDs in contrast to what the current guidelines are advocating [3]? Let us take a look at the data provided by the NEJM studies. In the first study, members of the Triglycerides and High-Density Lipoprotein Working Group sequenced the exome of 3734 persons and then tested the association of plasma triglycer-ide levels with rare sequence variants. The gene most strongly associated with plasma triglyceride levels encoded apolipoprotein C3 (ApoC3).
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