Apolipoprotein(a) is the distinguishing protein moiety of lipoprotein(a), of which elevated plasma levels are correlated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis. This gene is similar to the lipoprotein, Lp(a) gene, but all transcripts produced by this gene contain a truncated open reading frame and are candidates for nonsense-mediated decay. Consequently, this gene is considered to be a pseudogene. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2009].