Four SNPs on chromosome 9p21 in a South Korean population implicate a genetic locus that confers high cross-race risk for development of coronary artery disease.
OBJECTIVE
Recent genome-wide association studies have identified 4 SNPs on chromosome 9p21 associated with CAD (rs10757274 and rs2383206) and myocardial infarction (MI: rs2383207 and rs10757278) in White populations in Northern Europe and North America. We aimed to determine whether this locus confers significant susceptibility to CAD in a South Korean population, and thus cross-race susceptibility to CAD.


RESULTS
We performed a case-control association study with 611 unrelated CAD patients and 294 normal controls from South Korea. Allelic associations of SNPs and SNP haplotypes with CAD were evaluated. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to adjust effects of clinical covariates. We found that 4 SNPs on chromosome 9p21 were associated with susceptibility to CAD in a South Korean population. The association remained significant after adjusting for significant clinical covariates (P=0.001 to 0.024). We identified one risk haplotype (GGGG; P=0.017) and one protective haplotype (AAAA; P=0.007) for development of CAD. Further analysis suggested that the SNPs probably confer susceptibility to CAD in a dominance model (covariates-adjusted P=0.001 to 0.024; OR=2.37 to 1.54). This represents the first study that expands association of these 9p21 SNPs with CAD beyond White populations.


CONCLUSIONS
Chromosome 9p21 is an important susceptibility locus that confers high cross-race risk for development of CAD.
Department of Molecular Cardiology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Gong-Qing
GQ
Shen
Lin
L
Li
Shaoqi
S
Rao
Kalil G
KG
Abdullah
Ji Min
JM
Ban
Bok-Soo
BS
Lee
Jeong Euy
JE
Park
Qing K
QK
Wang
D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002899:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9 / Q000235:genetics*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*