title: Association study between variants in the fibrinogen gene cluster, fibrinogen levels and hypertension: results from the MONICA/KORA study.
abstract: Previous studies reported a gender-specific association between plasma fibrinogen concentrations and incident hypertension. We systematically analysed polymorphisms and haplotypes across the fibrinogen gene cluster with fibrinogen levels and assessed their contribution to prevalent hypertension in 2,200 men and 2,159 women from the population-based MONICA/KORA Augsburg study. Eleven tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were systematically selected in the three fibrinogen genes and haplotypes were reconstructed. The minor alleles of two SNPs, rs2227401 (FGB) and rs2070016 (FGA) and the haplotypes tagged by those variants, were significantly associated with higher fibrinogen concentrations in both, men and women, explaining 1% of the total variance of fibrinogen concentrations. In addition, a FGG haplotype, tagged by rs1049636, was associated with lower concentrations of fibrinogen in women, but not in men. Regarding hypertension, we detected a significant association with a FGA promoter variant (rs2070008) in women only, whereas fibrinogen haplotypes were not associated with hypertension after correction for multiple comparisons in either men or women. In conclusion, our results suggest that variants in all three fibrinogen genes are significantly associated with differences in fibrinogen concentrations with modest contribution to phenotypic variance. It is likely that other genetic variants outside the fibrinogen gene loci are involved in the regulation of fibrinogen concentrations. In addition, one FGA promoter variant was significantly associated with hypertension in women. Confirmation of these findings by future studies is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II - Cardiology, University of Ulm Medical Center, Robert-Koch Str. 8, D-89081 Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kolz
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baumert
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gohlke
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Grallert
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Döring
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: H-Erich
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Wichmann
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Illig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000235:genetics*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005858:Germany; D006239:Haplotypes; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005810:Multigene Family; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D005340:Fibrinogen