Association of oestrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphism with the angiographic extent of coronary artery disease

Aims To investigate the association between sequence variants in the promoter region of the oestrogen receptor-alpha (ER-alpha) gene and the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods and results We studied 503 subjects undergoing coronary angiography (mean age 63+/-12 years, 72% men, 28% women). Coronary artery disease extent was assessed by the number of: (1) major coronary vessels with >50% narrowing (NMCV); (2) coronary vessels with any narrowing (NCV); (3) narrowed coronary segments (NCS). The number of thymine and adenine dinucleotide repeats [(TA)(n)], 1174 base-pairs upstream exon 1, was determined by PCR. The median number of (TA)(n) (118) was used to categorize subjects into long, short and mixed allele genotypes. Poisson regression was used to analyse the association between genotypes and CAD extent, with age category (age less than or equal to55 vs >55), sex, risk factors and age at onset of CAD as covariates. In young subjects, (TA)(n) length had a significant effect on NCS (P=0.047) and a borderline significant effect on NCV (P=0.066). Young subjects homozygous for tong alleles had higher NCV and NCS compared to those homozygous for short alleles (NCV 3.7+/-2.4 vs 2.4+/-1.8, NCS 4.4+/-2.7 vs 3.1+/-2.3, respectively, Pless than or equal to0.034). Conclusion The (TA)(n) Length in the ER-alpha gene promoter region is associated with the angiographic severity of CAD in young patients. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The European Society of Cardiology.