Association of interleukin-18 gene promoter polymorphisms with myocardial infarction in a Han population of northern China

AIM:To investigate the association between IL-18 promoter functional polymorphisms(-607C/A and-137G/C) and myocardial infarction(MI) in a Han population of northern China.METHODS:A case-control study was conducted in 468 patients with MI and 432 controls with normal results of coronary angiograms.Genotyping was performed by sequence-specific primer-polymerase chain reaction.RESULTS:Genotype frequencies of CC,CA and AA of the IL-18-607C/A polymorphism were,respectively,20.83%,50.93% and 28.24% in the controls,and 36.32%,44.87% and 18.81% in MI patients.Genotype frequencies of GG,GC and CC of the IL-18-137G/C polymorphism were,respectively,71.30%,26.85% and 1.85% in controls and 75.21%,23.93% and 0.86% in MI patients.Significant differences were observed in the genotype and allele distribution of-607C/A polymorphism of the IL-18 gene between cases and controls(P0.05).Logistic regression analysis with adjustments for other well-established risk factors revealed that the-607C allele carriers had a significantly increased risk of MI compared with the non-carriers(P0.05).No relationship between-137G/C polymorphism and MI was found in this study(P=0.133).Compared with the AC haplotype,the CG haplotype was associated with reduced occurrence of MI.CONCLUSIONS:This study shows for the first time that the IL-18 gene promoter-607C/A polymorphism can be considered a genetic risk factor for MI in a Han population of northerb China.CG haplotype is associated with MI occurrence.