The STANISLAS Cohort: a 10-year follow-up of supposed healthy families. Gene-environment interactions, reference values and evaluation of biomarkers in prevention of cardiovascular diseases

The description of this familial longitudinal cohort was published in this journal 10 years ago, in 1998. To date, 117 publications on the STANISLAS Cohort (SC) have appeared, corresponding to five main categories of results: familial resemblance and heritability; genetics and gene-environment interactions; mRNA and proteins as gene products; reference values and biological variations of proteins; and finally preventive medicine and prepathological epidemiological data. More than 600 data values on demographic and laboratory data have been collected on each individual taking part out of the 1006 families at the beginning and for all three recruitments. Serum and plasma are stored in liquid nitrogen for all participants for all three recruitments. DNA has been extracted from all participants and mRNA from 357 families. They are stored at -80 degrees C. Owing to the SC study, heritability and many gene-environment interactions have been described. The expression of 166 genes related to cardiovascular diseases was measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells RNA. Reference values for proteins and vitamins have been established in addition to reference values for the carotid and femoral intima media thickness in adults and children. The data obtained contribute to a better understanding of the relation between the studied polymorphisms (161 polymorphic sites) and health, and predisposition to obesity, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, the SC study is internationally the only longitudinal family cohort of subjects who are presumed to be healthy, which enables the study of the chain DNA-RNA-proteins.