Gender-specific associations of CD36 polymorphisms with the lipid profile and susceptibility to premature multi-vessel coronary artery heart disease in the Northern Han Chinese

Background: The aim of the present study was to detect potential gender-specific associations between some common CD36 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the lipid profile, as well as the susceptibility to premature mull-vessel coronary artery heart disease (CHD) in the Han population of Northern China. Methods: A systematic three-step study process was employed to detect associations between CD36 gene variants and blood lipid profiles, as well as premature mull-vessel CHD in a gender-specific manner. Results: The current study documented the following novel findings: (I) the full population-based association study in 329 Northern Han Chinese showed that four common CD36 polymorphisms were significantly related to extreme lipid profiles, with statistically significant effects based on gender interactions (rs1049673: P = 0.001; rs7755: P = 0.008; rs3211956: P = 0.034; and rs3173798: P = 0.004); (ii) these statistically significant effects could be decomposed into statistically significant atherogenic effects in males, but non-significant non-atherogenic effects in females; (iii) the results of logistic regression analysis indicated that current smoking status, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, and type-2 diabetes were independent risk factors for premature mull-vessel CHD phenotype (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Four common CD36 polymorphisms (rs1049673, rs7755, rs3211956, and rs3173798) were identified to be significantly associated with extreme lipid profiles and had statistically opposite gender-specific clinical lipid profile effects. Thus, the 3'-untranslated regions (3'-UTR) CD36 SNPs could be a novel target for metabolic abnormalities in males of the Han nationality from Northern China.