Prevalence in a Tunisian Arabic population of factor VII DNA variants and relation to factor VII plasma levels.
BACKGROUND
A raised plasma factor VII (FVII) level is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. DNA variants have been described to be associated with alteration in FVII levels. The prevalence of FVII polymorphisms is unknown in the Tunisian Arab population.


METHODS
In a group of 240 healthy Tunisians, we examined the relationship between levels of FVII coagulant activity (FVIIc) and two polymorphisms in the FVII gene. One polymorphism alters arginine at position 353 to glutamine (R/Q) and the other is a 10 base pair insertion (0/10 bp).


RESULTS
The FVII distribution was in accordance with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The allele frequencies of Q and 10 bp were 0.212 and 0.235, respectively. There were significant differences in these allelic frequencies between Tunisian and other populations (p<0.001). We observed lower FVIIc levels among subjects with the Q allele compared to RR subjects (RR: 98.17%, RQ/QQ: 57.41%, p<0.0001). For the 0/10 polymorphism, no statistically difference was observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of the Q allele which was found to be associated with lower plasma FVIIc levels is high in Tunisian population. Further analyses should yield information on the protective role of carrying the Q allele for coronary heart disease.
Nour
Mohamed
M
Faculty of Medicine, 99-UR/08-39, Monastir, Tunisia. mednour@yahoo.fr
Slama
Foued Belhaj
FB
Monastiri
Kamel
K
Hammami
Mohamed
M
Helal
Ahmed Noureddine
AN
D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D018912:Arabs; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D005167:Factor VII / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology
D005167:Factor VII; D004247:DNA