Pleiotropic genetic effects contribute to the correlation between HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL particle size in hypertensive sibships

Multivariate quantitative genetic analyses in hypertensive sibships reveal that pleiotropy contributes to the additive genetic variation in HDL-C, triglycerides, and LDL particle size. These findings provide the rationale for multivariate linkage analyses to identify novel genetic loci with pleiotropic effects on the traits.