Familial designs are fundamental to the study of the genetics of cardiovascular risk factors (CVR). With this in mind, in 1993 we initiated the STANISLAS Family Study (SFS) based on the study of inter-individual variability and familial determinism of intermediate phenotypes of CHD. We therefore recruited, between 1993 and 1995, 4488 individuals belonging to 1006 French two-parent families assumed to be healthy (STANISLAS cohort) with at least two biological children per family, aged over 6 years. This population, which we followed for 15 years at a rate of 1 visit every 5 years, constituted - and still constitutes - a formidable tool for the evaluation of the effect of genetics on the variability of intermediate phenotypes studied under physiological conditions without the influence of a drug treatment or a pathology. We assembled collections of serum, plasma, DNA, PAXgene, and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) for mRNA and protein extracts (3rd assessment) and genotyped the entire cohort for 161 polymorphic sites (SNPs) of 82 candidate CVR genes (64 involved in inflammation) by a Multiplex system developed in collaboration with ROCHE Molecular Systems (Alameda, USA). More than 120 original results obtained by this gene-candidate approach are summarised in Visvikis-Siest S. and Siest G (119).

The list of the Stanislas Cohort can be downloaded at: