An intron 4 gene polymorphism in endothelial cell nitric oxide synthase might modulate lipid metabolism in nondiabetic patients on hemodialysis

We investigated the relationship between endothelial constitutive nitric ox ide synthase (ecNOS) gene polymorphism and lipid metabolism in patients wit h nondiabetic chronic renal failure on hemodialysis. Serum from 181 nondiab etic patients on hemodialysis were examined. A genomic DNA fragment was amp lified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for determining the ecNOS genotyp e, The PCR products were designated as a and b alleles by electrophoresis, In hemodialysis patients, the frequency of the ecNOS4 for b/b, b/a and a/a genotype was 76.6, 22.8 and 0.6%, respectively. There was not significant d ifference in the levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and ca lculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) in sera between patien ts (aa and ba) with the a allele and patients (bb) without the a allele, On the other hand, the levels of serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( HDL-c) in patients with the a allele (51.9 +/- 3.33 mg/dl) were significant ly higher than those in patients without the a allele (43.05 +/- 1.40 mg/dl ) (p = 0.005). The frequency of patients with the a allele and low levels o f serum HDL-c among patients with a long duration of dialysis (greater than or equal to 10 years) was significantly lower than that in patients with s hort duration of dialysis (<10 years) (p = 0.05), It appears that an intron 4 gene polymorphism in ecNOS may modulate lipid metabolism in nondiabetic patients on hemodialysis and the a allele of ecNOS gene polymorphism may af fect the prognosis of hemodialysis patients with low levels of serum HDL-c, Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.