MEF2A gene and susceptibility to coronary artery disease in the Chinese people.
OBJECTIVE
To explore MEF2A gene and susceptibility to coronary artery disease in the Chinese.


METHODS
One hundred seventy-five coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and 228 normal subjects were recruited and their blood samples were amplified to detect sequences of all 11 exons of MEF2A gene by PCR. Single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was used to detect the mutation. The amplified products were purified and sequenced.


RESULTS
The tri-nucleotide (CAG) length polymorphism in the last coding exon of MEF2A in the Chinese was revealed and 4 of the 175 (2.3%) CAD samples containing 4 prolines were due to one proline deletion in MEF2A gene. But all the 228 normal subjects contained 5 prolines. The mutation in both 175 CAD samples and 228 normal subjects was not found in other exons.


CONCLUSIONS
The deletion mutation in exon 11 in MEF2A gene may be related to CAD susceptibility in the Chinese population.
Yuan
Hong
H
Center for Experimental Medical Research, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China. hwlv2226@163.com
Lü
Hong-wei
HW
Hu
Jing
J
Chen
Shu-hua
SH
Yang
Guo-ping
GP
Huang
Zhi-jun
ZJ
D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D064326:MEF2 Transcription Factors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D018006:Myogenic Regulatory Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D018911:Trinucleotide Repeats
D064326:MEF2 Transcription Factors; D018006:Myogenic Regulatory Factors