ANGIOTENSINOGEN AND ANGIOTENSIN-I CONVERTING-ENZYME GENE POLYMORPHISMS AND THE RISK OF CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE IN CHINESE

The homozygous deletion allele (DD) of the angiotensin-I converting en zyme (ACE) gene and the T235 homozygote of the angiotensinogen (AGT) g ene have been reported to be correlated with an increased prevalence o f coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI). The im portance of the DD genotype and T235 homozygote as genetic risk factor s for CAD in Chinese remains uncertain. This study included 426 patien ts who underwent coronary angiography and 180 healthy subjects without clinical evidence of CAD. Coronary angiography identified 268 patient s with CAD (CAD group) and 158 patients without CAD. The healthy subje cts and patients without angiographic evidence of CAD constituted the control group. Three polymorphisms were studied: an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the ACE gene and the T174 M and M235T polymorph isms of the AGT gene. No association was found between any of the thre e studied polymorphisms and the risk of CAD or MI in Chinese using uni variate or multivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis. the relati ve risks were 1.20 (95% confidence interval = 0.91-1.61, P = 0.20) for the DD genotype, 1.05 (95% CI = 0.82-1.35, P = 0.69) for the T174 hom ozygote, and 1.19 (95% CI = 0.91-1.55, P 0.20) for the T235 homozygote . Similarly, no significant difference was found in the frequencies of the DD genotype and the T174 and T235 homozygotes between the control group, the CAD group, the non-MI group, and the MI group when analyze d according to sex, age, or degree of risk. Our data suggest that neit her the DD genotype of the ACE I/D polymorphism nor the T174 and T235 homozygotes of the AGT gene confer significant risk for CAD or MI in C hinese.