Low-density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) world-wide website in familial hypercholesterolaemia: update, new features and mutation analysis

Mutations in the low density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) cause familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). The FH website (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/fh) has been updated to provide various functions enabling the analysis of the large number of LDLR mutations. To date, 683 LDLR mutations have been reported; of these 58.9% are missense mutations, 21.1% minor rearrangements, 13.5% major rearrangements and 6.6% splice site mutations. Of the 402 missense mutations, only 11.4% occurred at CpG sites. The majority of mutations were found in two functional domains, the ligand binding domain (42%) and the epidermal growth factor (EGF) precursor-like domain (47%). This report describes new features of the FH website and assesses the spectrum of mutations reported to date.