THE GLN-ARG191 POLYMORPHISM OF THE HUMAN PARAOXONASE GENE (HUMPONA) IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THE RISK OF CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE IN FINNS

The human paraoxonase gene (HUMPONA) is codominantly expressed as alle les A and G, The A allele codes for glutamine (A genotype) and the G a llele for arginine (B genotype) at position 191 of the paraoxonase enz yme. This genetic polymorphism has been suggested to be associated wit h the predisposition to coronary artery disease (CAD), We investigated the frequency of paraoxonase A and G alleles in 380 well-characterize d CAD patients and in 169 controls, The most common genotype in both t he patients with CAD (211/380) and in healthy Finnish individuals (87/ 169) was AA (Gln/Gln), The heterozygous A/B (Gln/Arg) genotype was pre sent in 140 of the patients and in 75 controls. The frequency of the A allele was 0.74 in both patients and controls, The genotype distribut ion between the two groups did not differ (P = 0.12, chi(2) test), The genotype distributions were also similar to those reported earlier in other caucasoid populations, In conclusion, we found no association b etween the Gln-Arg 191 polymorphism of the human paraoxonase gene and coronary artery disease in Finns.