the effect of interactions of single nucleotide polymorphisms of apoa1/apoc3 with food group intakes on the risk of metabolic syndrome

background: the aim of this study was to examine the interaction of dietary food groups and genetic variants of apoa1/apoc3, relative to metabolic syndrome (mets) risk in adults. methods: in this matched nested case-control study, 414 mets subjects and 414 controls were selected from among participants of tehran lipid and glucose study. dietary intake was assessed with the use of a valid and reliable semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps), apoa1 (rs670, -75g>a and rs5069, +83c>t/apoc3 rs5128 c3238>g) were genotyped by the conventional polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. results: the mean (sd) of age was 40.7 (13) and 41.2 (13) years in male cases and controls versus 44.0 (11) and 44.0 (12) years in female case and controls. a significant interaction between intake quartiles of the sugar group and apoa1 combined group (ga+aa/ct+tt) snps was found; the ors for these genotype carriers were (1, 0.44, 0.36, 0.23; p trend<0.001) in quartiles of intake, relative to other combined genotypes (p interaction=0.02). mets risk appeared to be increased significantly in higher quartiles of sweet beverages and fish intakes in the ga+aa/ct+tt/cc genotypes of apoa1/apoc3 snps, compared to other genotypes (p interaction=0.01). the combined effect of genotypes of apoc3/apoa1 showed further decrease in mets risk in higher quartiles of sugar group intakes (or: 1, 0.24, 0.26, 0.14, p trend=0.001) relative to other combinations (p interaction=0.008). conclusion: results obtained demonstrate that some dietary food groups (sugar, fish, and sweet beverages) modulate the effect of apoa1/apoc3 snps in relation to mets risk.