Abstract
The aldosterone synthase gene, cytochrome P450 11B2 (CYP11B2), and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) genes have been reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). In this study, we investigated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CYP11B2 (CYP11B2 T-344C) and MR (MR C3514G and MR C4582A) with CAD in Taiwanese. Six hundred and nine unrelated male and female subjects who received elective coronary angiography were recruited from Chung Shan Medical University Hospital. The enrolled subjects were those who had a positive noninvasive test. CYP11B2 T-344C, MR C3514G and MR C4582A were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. We found that women with CYP11B2 C/C had a higher risk of developing CAD. However, there were no significant differences in the genotype distributions of MR C3514G and MR C4582A between the women with and without CAD. In multivariate analysis, CYP11B2 T-344C was most significantly associated with CAD in Taiwanese women. In conclusions, CYP11B2 C/C was more significantly associated with the development of CAD than diabetes mellitus or hypertension. This implies that CYP11B2 C/C plays a more important role than some conventional risk factors in the development of CAD in Taiwanese women.