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Thromb Haemost 2001; 86(05): 1141-1143
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1616041
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A Prospective Evaluation of the Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Intron 2 Gene Polymorphism and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction

Robert Y. L. Zee
1   Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, the Leducq Center for Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disorders, the Division of Preventive Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
,
Karsten Lunze
2   Division of Endocrine-Hypertension, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
,
Klaus Lindpaintner
2   Division of Endocrine-Hypertension, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
,
Paul M. Ridker
1   Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, the Leducq Center for Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disorders, the Division of Preventive Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
› Author AffiliationsSupported by grants HL58755 and HL63293 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, and by a Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (P.M.R.).
Further Information

Publication History

Received 30 March 2001

Accepted after revision 05 April 2001

Publication Date:
13 December 2017 (online)

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Summary

While an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene polymorphism (IL1RN-VNTR) has recently been hypothesized to be a risk factor for coronary artery disease, no prospective data relating this polymorphism to subsequent risk of coronary events are available. We therefore investigated the association between IL1RN-VNTR genotype and the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) in a large, prospective cohort of initially healthy men. The IL1RN-VNTR was evaluated among 385 MI case subjects and an equal number of age- and smoking-matched control subjects during a 12-year follow-up. Overall, the allele and g enotype distributions were similar among cases and controls, both in the total cohort and in all subgroups evaluated. All observed genotype frequencies were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Furthermore, the relative risk in a comparison of homozygous mutant to homozygous wild-type was 0.89 (95%CI = 0.5-1.6; P = 0.9). In this large, prospective study, the IL1RN-VNTR gene polymorphism is not associated with risks of future MI. These data also highlight the importance of hypothesis testing studies in genetic epidemiology, particularly for hypotheses generated from small samples or post hoc subgroup analyses.

Keywords

IL1RN - myocardial infarction - prospective study - risk factors
 

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