Association of Apolipoprotein E Polymorphism with Myocardial Infarction in Greek Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Studies in several populations have indicated that genetic variation at the apolipoprotein E (apoE) structural locus influences the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI). This study aimed at investigating whether apoE polymorphism has an allelic and/or genotypic impact on the risk of MI in Greek patients with CAD. We compared apoE gene polymorphism in a group of patients with angiographically confirmed CAD but not MI [CAD/MI (-)-group, n = 143] and a group of age and sex-matched CAD patients who had experienced a non-fatal Ml [CAD/MI (+)-group, n = 124]. The patients were also compared with a group of healthy younger individuals (n = 240) with no family history of CAD. The apoE genotype distribution differed significantly between the two groups of CAD patients (p = 0.02). The epsilon2 allele was 5.3-fold less frequent in the CAD/ MI (+)-group compared with the CAD/MI (-)-group (1.2% vs. 6.3%, p = 0.01). The frequency of the epsilon2 allele in healthy subjects was 8.1%, which is 6.8-fold higher than in CAD/MI (+)-patients (p = 0.001) and twice as high compared with all CAD patients (p = 0.02). No differences in epsilon4 allele frequencies were observed between CAD/MI (+)- and CAD/MI (-)-patients (10.9% vs. 9.8%), or between patients with CAD and healthy subjects (10.3% vs. 10.2%). In summary, the epsilon4 allele was not found to be associated with an increased risk for CAD or MI. In contrast, a negative association of the epsilon2 allele with Ml was observed among Greek patients with CAD.

ApoE gene and exceptional longevity: Insights from three independent cohorts

“…With regards to this, a recent study showed that the levels of Aβ oligomers in AD patients were lowest in those carrying the ε2-allele (Hashimoto et al, 2012). The ε2-allele also seems to play a protective role against CVD (Bennet et al, 2007;Gerdes et al, 2000;Kolovou et al, 2002), though the evidence is probably weaker than for negative effect of the ε4-allele (Drenos and Kirkwood, 2010). In addition, previous large population-based longitudinal studies, i.e., the Rotterdam study (Slooter et al, 2001) and the Danish 1905 birth cohort (Lindahl-Jacobsen et al, 2013) reported no favorable effect of ε2-allele on mortality in the elderly, despite protecting against cognitive decline in the oldest old (≥93 years) (Lindahl-Jacobsen et al, 2013).…”

Impact of ACE and ApoE polymorphisms on myocardial perfusion: correlation with myocardial single photon emission computed tomographic imaging

“…[33][34][35][36] In our study, almost all patients carrying the e4 allele had an abnormal myocardial perfusion SPECT (SSS42). The subjects with ApoE E3/E3 and E3/E4 genotypes were prevalent (86.8%) among those with moderately and severely abnormal SPECT study (SSSX9).…”

Apolipoprotein E as Risk Factor for Coronary Heart Disease

“…Different result were found in China, where polymorphism of ε4 gene was not the risk factor for CHD (Liu et al, 2003), as well as in coronary artery disease. This ε4 gene was not the risk factor in Oman, Greek and Brazalian populations (Al-Yahyaee et al, 2007;De Franca et al, 2004;Kolovou et al, 2002;Souza et al, 2007) The role of apoE polymorphism in causing dyslipidemia was studied in CHD patients and controls. Apolipoprotein ε2 allele has protective effect for CHD, but ε3 and ε4 alleles were the risk factor for CHD especially in individuals with dyslipidemia.…”