['Response to the lipid-lowering effect of the statins is known to show significant inter-individual variability. Our aim was to investigate whether genetic variants of the CYP3A5 gene, CYP7A1 gene and ABCG8 gene influence the lipid-lowering response to atorvastatin.', 'One hundred and seven unrelated Chinese Han hypercholesterolemia patients were recruited from among the inpatients and outpatients of Tangshan Gongren Hospital of Hebei, China. Three polymorphisms of the CYP3A5 gene, seven polymorphisms of the CYP7A1 gene and seven polymorphisms of the ABCG8 gene were selected using a tagging single-nucleotide polymorphism (tSNP) strategy and genotyped using Snapshot platform.', 'SNP rs8192870, located in the first intron of the CYP7A1 gene, was associated with the LDL level lowering response to atorvastatin. The LDL levels were reduced by 27.89% for the GG/GA genotype carriers and 35.26% for the AA genotype carriers, respectively, after atorvastatin treatment (P = 0.021). The significance remained after adjusting for covariates. In addition, we observed that rs4148222 in the 11th intron of the ABCG8 gene significantly associated with the baseline levels of HDL (P = 0.046).'] Does cYP7A1 polymorphism influence the LDL cholesterol-lowering response to atorvastatin?