Investigation of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism and determination of ACE activity in individuals with chronic hepatitis

In this study, plasma ACE activities and ACE genotypes were determined in 20 adult patients with chronic hepatitis (15 males, 5 males) and 29 (29 males) adult healthy controls living in Cukurova Region. Averages of ACE activities were found as 27.16 ± 8.55 U/L and 25.77 + 6.97 U/L for patients and healthy subjects, respectively. The ratios of allele number of showing insertion polymorphism (I) to allele number of showing deletion polymorphism (D) were accounted as 0.43 and 0.23 for patients and healthy subjects, respectively. As a result, in fact that the difference in genotypes does not effect plasma ACE activity, however, frequency of I alleles in patients with chronic hepatitis is significantly higher than frequency of I alleles in healthy individuals was established (p<0.01). Key Words : Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE), I/D Polymorphism, Chronic Hepatitis.