Genetic Polymorphism of Human Y Chromosome and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Diseases: A Study in WOBASZ Cohort

Genetic variants of Y chromosome predispose to hypertension in rodents, whereas in humans the evidence is conflicting. Our purpose was to study the distribution of a panel of Y chromosome markers in a cohort from a cross-sectional population-based study on the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in Poland (WOBASZ study). The HindIII, YAP Y chromosome variants, previously shown to influence blood pressure, lipid traits or height, as well as SNPs defining main Y chromosome haplogroups, were typed in 3026, 2783 and 2652 samples, respectively. In addition, 4 subgroups (N similar to 100 each) representing extremes of LDL concentration or blood pressure (BP) were typed for a panel of 17 STRs. The HindIII and YAP polymorphism were not associated with any of the studied traits. Analysis of the haplogroup distribution showed an association between higher HDL level and hg I-M170 (P = 0.02), higher LDL level and hg F*(xl-M170, J2-M172, K-M9) (P = 0.03) and lower BMI and hg N3-Tat (P = 0.04). Analysis of STRs did not show statistically significant differences. Since all these associations lost statistical significance after Bonferroni correction, we conclude that a major role of Y chromosome genetic variation (defined by HindIII, YAP or main Y chromosome haplogroups) in determining cardiovascular risk in Poles is unlikely.