Association of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C–634 G Polymorphism in Taiwanese Children With Kawasaki Disease

Abstract

High expression of circulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been reported in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD). In the pathophysiology of KD, VEGF is considered to be involved, especially in the development of coronary artery lesions. This study aimed to examine whether the VEGF-634 promoter polymorphism is a marker of KD susceptibility or severity in Chinese patients in Taiwan. The study included 93 KD patients and 96 normal control subjects. Genotype and allelic frequencies for the VEGF gene polymorphism in the two groups were compared. The number of individuals with the VEGF-634 G/G genotype was significantly greater among the patients with KD than among the healthy control subjects (p = 0.011). The odds ratio for the development of KD in individuals with the VEGF-634 G/G genotype was found to be 2.03 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-3.63) compared with the VEGF-634 G/C and VEGF-634 C/C genotypes. No significant difference was observed in the genotype or allelic frequencies of VEGF C-634 G polymorphism between the patients with and those without coronary artery lesions. In conclusion, the results suggest that VEGF-634 G/G genotype may be involved in the development of KD in Taiwanese children.

Susceptibility genes for Kawasaki disease: toward implementation of personalized medicine

“…30 Although several other groups have studied other combinations of HLA subtypes, no consistent association has been detected so far. Considering that no significant linkage was detected near the 6p region in our genome-wide linkage analysis, 31 34 and MCP-1 35 ), hematopoietins (interleukin-4 (IL-4) [36][37][38] and IL-6 39 ), IL-1 family (IL-1b, 37 IL-18, 40 and IL-1Ra 37 ), IL-10 family (IL-10 41 ), platelet-derived growth factor family (vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [42][43][44][45] and VEGFR2 42 ), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family (TNF-a, 46-50 lipoteichoic acid, 47 and CD40L 51,52 ). Other candidates include plasma proteins (C-reactive protein [53][54][55] and MBL2 53,55,56 ), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and their inhibitors (MMP2, 58 MMP3, 57,58 MMP-9, 58 MMP-12, 58 MMP-13, 58 and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase-2 59 ), enzymes related to atherosclerosis (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), 60 endothelial nitric oxide synthase, 61 and inducible nitric oxide synthase 61 ), components of the renin-angiotensin system (angiotensin-converting enzyme [62][63][64][65] and AGTR1 64 ), and an unclassified group (CD14, 66 FCGR2A, 67,68 SLC11A1, 69 PLA2G7, 70 UGT1A1, 71 MICA, 72 and HMOX1 71 ).…”

Molecular Genetics of Kawasaki Disease

“…In the study of Dutch KD patients, 2 SNPs other than rs2010963 showed association with KD (44). With regard to association of rs2010963 with KD or CALs, two inconsistent results were also reported by Taiwanese groups (45,46).…”

Polymorphism of VEGF gene in susceptibility to chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: a meta-analysis

“…As for the detecting method of the VEGF +405G>C polymorphism, 19 studies used the classic method of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), four used the MassARRAY method, and the other four chose the TaqMan method. According to the classification criteria of IMIDs, there were six studies focusing on psoriasis [13,[22][23][24][25][26], four on RA [27][28][29][30], four on KD [31][32][33][34], three on GCA [35][36][37], two on T1DM [38,39], two on BD [40,41], two on SLE [42,43], one on systemic sclerosis (SS) [44], one on psoriatic arthritis (PsA) [45], one on Graves' disease (GD) [14], and one on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [46]. Table 2 summarizes the meta-analysis results about the relationship between the VEGF +405G>C polymorphism and the risk of IMIDs.…”

“…The studies scored from 0 to 40, based on 40 assessment items. The eligible studies were divided into three levels accordingly: low quality (0-19), moderate quality (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29), and high quality (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40).…”