A common variant of the angiotensinogen gene and the risk of coronary artery disease in a German population

The thymidine to cytosine transition at position 704 in exon 2 of the angio tensinogen gene leads to the amino acid substitution of threonine for methi onine (T235 variant) and is responsible for elevated plasma levels of angio tensinogen. To examine the influence of T235 on the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) we genotyped 184 CAD patients, 77 controls in whom CAD was e xcluded angiographically, and 155 healthy controls without signs of CAD by polymerase chain amplification and restriction enzyme digestion. Allele fre quencies for A (wildtype) and a (mutant allele) in the total study populati on were 0.538 and 0.462, 0.536 and 0.464 in the healthy controls, and 0.481 and 0.519 in patients with excluded CAD, respectively. The allele frequenc ies and the genotype distribution in these groups did not show a significan t difference. In conclusion. we did not observe an association between the T235 variant of the angiotensinogen gene and the risk of CAD.