RANTES gene mRNA expression and its -403 G/A promoter polymorphism in coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE

Increased RANTES expression has been described to have a role in atherosclerosis plaque formation. Functional polymorphisms within RANTES promoter region have shown association with increased risk of coronary atherosclerosis (CAD). The aim of this study was to examine the RANTES mRNA expression in patients with CAD compared to patients without CAD and its association with RANTES -403 G/A polymorphism in an Iranian population.

METHODS

The study was performed on 319 patients who underwent coronary artery angiography and patients with >50% stenosis in vessels considered as case groups (CAD+) N=191 and normal vessels group as control (CAD-) N=128. In each group 20 patients were examined for RANTES mRNA expression. RANTES mRNA expression was examined using quantitative real-time PCR. Genotyping of -403 polymorphism was performed using PCR-RFLP technique.

RESULTS

We found that RANTES mRNA expression was increased to 1.37 fold in CAD patients compared to the controls but the difference was not statistically significant. Also comparing the RANTES mRNA expression in patients with different RANTES -403 G/A polymorphism showed that in patients carrying AA genotype RANTES mRNA expression was increased to 1.74 fold compared to patients carrying GG genotype and to 1.51 fold compared to patients carrying GA genotype. No significant difference for allele and genotype frequencies of RANTES -403 polymorphism was found between cases and controls.

CONCLUSION

More studies on larger number of samples are required to further evaluate role of RANTES in pathogenesis of CAD.