To investigate the relationship between myocardial infarction and rock2 gene polymorphisms

Myocardial infarction (MI), which leads to serious morbidity and mortality and is based on atherosclerosis, is a common disease. Activation of Rho-kinase plays an important role in the stress fiber formation, focal adhesions, smooth muscle contraction, cell growth, adhesion, migration, motility, gene expression, apoptosis, and in the physiological and pathophysiological regulation of the cardiovascular system. The aim of the study was to investigate the genotype distributions and allele frequencies of three ROCK-2 gene Thr431Asn (in exon 10), Lys1083Met (in exon 26) and Asp601Val (in exon 16) polymorhisms and the relationship between myocardial infarctus and these polymorphisms in a Turkish population. This is the first study to evaluate the role of ROCK-2 gene polymorphisms in MI. 100 MI patients and 100 unrelated healthy controls were included in the study. Data were collected on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Blood samples were taken from 100 patients and 100 healthy individuals. In order to show SNP exon 16 and exon 26 region were studied by RFLP method, for exon 10 region Real Time PCR method used. For Thr431Asn polymorphism on exon 10 region ROCK2 gene Thr-Thr, Thr-Asn, Asn-Asn genotype frequencies and Thr, Asn allele frequencies; for Asp601Val polymorphism on exon 16 region Asp-Asp, Asp-Val, Val-Val genotype frequencies and Asp, Val allele frequencies; for Lys1083Met polymorphism on exon 26 region Lys-Lys, Lys-Met, Met-Met genotype frequencies and Met, Lys allele frequencies were studied. Neither genotype distributions nor the allele frequencies for the Thr431Asn, Asp601Val or Lys1083Met polymorphisms showed a significant difference between control and patient groups. In conclusion, these results suggest that there were no evidence for an association of ROCK2 gene Thr431Asn, Asp601Val and Lys1083Met polymorphisms with MI in the Turkish population.Key Words: Atherosclerosis, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, ROCK2, Rho-kinase