title: Thrombomodulin gene polymorphisms and haplotypes and the risk of cardiovascular events: a prospective follow-up study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Thrombomodulin is an anticoagulant expressed during endothelial activation and damage. To address the potential role of allelic variants of thrombomodulin gene in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, we analyzed in a prospective follow-up study 8 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the thrombomodulin locus, covering all common (>5%) haplotypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two separate, stratified random samples of men and women 25 to 74 years of age were examined in Finland in 1992 and 1997. The total sample size was 14 140 individuals, with 7 (1997 cohort) to 10 (1992 cohort) years of follow-up. Altogether, 662 individuals had a history of cardiovascular events already at baseline. During the follow-up, 401 incident coronary events and 148 incident ischemic strokes were observed. The alleles and common haplotypes of 8 SNPs were tested in Cox proportional hazards models using incident coronary events, incident ischemic strokes, and total mortality as end points. None of the SNPs or major SNP haplotypes showed consistent association with the end points analyzed in the combined data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results from this prospective, population-based study suggest that common allelic variants of the thrombomodulin gene may not significantly contribute to the risk of cardiovascular events at the population level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, KTL, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Auro
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Komulainen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alanne
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Silander
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peltonen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perola
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Salomaa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018180:Thrombomodulin / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018180:Thrombomodulin