Association of vaspin gene polymorphisms with coronary artery disease in Chinese population and function study

Background: Visceral adipose tissue-derived serine protease inhibitor (vaspin) is a recently identified adipokine. Studies suggest it is involved in many diseases such as obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD). This study is to investigate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in vaspin with CAD and its potential mechanisms. Methods: A total of 1570 consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography were enrolled and the genotypes were determined by TaqMan allelic discrimination. Serum vaspin concentrations and mRNA expression levels were determined by ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. Reporter gene assay was performed to investigate the effect of polymorphism on vaspin promoter function. Results: After multivariate analysis, allele A of rs2236242 was found as an independent determinant of CAD (OR=132, p=0.004). Rs35262691 in vaspin promoter was associated with serum vaspin concentration and mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) though no association had been found with CAD. Reporter gene assay further confirmed that CC genotype of rs35262691 had 2.1 +/- 0.4-fold higher activities than TT genotype in facilitating gene expression. Conclusions: Our results show that the variants of vaspin gene are associated with serum vaspin levels and risk for CAD in Chinese population. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.