Relationship of venous thromboembolism and myocardial infarction with the renin-angiotensin system in African-Americans

Genetic polymorphisms/mutations associated with venous thrombosis have largely been confined to the genes that encode for proteins in either the coagulant or the anticoagulant pathway. Although genetic alterations in the renin-angiotensin system have been reported to have a role in myocardial infarction and hypertension, there is recent evidence to suggest that there may also be an association with venous thrombosis. To extend our earlier observation of an association between the ACE DD genotype in African-American males and venous thrombosis, other genes in the renin-angiotensin pathway were investigated for possible disease association and were compared with African-Americans with myocardial infarction. African-American patients with a documented history of venous thrombosis or a history of myocardial infarction were eligible for participation as cases in the study. Control subjects were African-American outpatients attending a clinical laboratory for routine blood tests who had comparable age and gender distributions to the cases. Persons with a history of myocardial infarction, stroke, or thrombosis were excluded. Genes that were analyzed for known polymorphisms included angiotensinogen, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), and the angiotensin 11 type I receptor. Our results showed that the ACE DD genotype was also associated with MI in African-American males but not in females. Racial/ethnic and sex differences were also found with respect to the genotype distribution of the ACE 4656(CT)(2/3) polymorphism. It was observed that the 2/2 genotype had a protective effective in males for myocardial infarction and venous thrombosis. The data also demonstrated that the allele frequencies of the A1166C variant of the angiotensin 11 type I receptor were different in African-Americans as compared to Caucasians. Published 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.