The role of CXCL12 gene variant in the Coronary Artery disease

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a very important cause of morbidity and mortality. The majority of CVD-related deaths are related to coronary artery disease (CAD). It is a decrease in blood flow in the myocardium, resulting in myocardial ischemia (MI). There have been studies showing that CAD risk is strongly linked to the 10q11.21 chromosomal locus. The rs1801157 C>T polymorphism was mapped to the chemokine CXCL12 gene. This genetic variant is known to affect atherosclerosis, CAD and MI. In this study, the relationship between CAD risk and variables of this polymorphism was investigated in the Turkish population. A group of 125 healthy controls and 139 Coronary artery patients who underwent angiography from the Turkish population were included in the study. Statistical analyzes were performed with SPSS 26.0 software to calculate genotype and allele distributions and compare values with clinical variables. No significant difference was found between patients and controls (p=0.503, p=0.622, p=0.588). Genotype and allele distributions of patient and control groups did not show a significant relationship in terms of rs1801157 polymorphisms. However, we concluded that the HDL values of those carrying the TT genotype were significantly higher (p=0.000). When we performed Lipid Subgroup analysis, we concluded that small LDL subgroups were lower in those with TT genotype p=(0.000); large and medium HDL subgroups were higher in those with TT genotype (p=0.018, p=0.000). With these findings, we can conclude that the expression of rs1801157 C>T polymorphism in CXCL12 is not associated with CAD, but in the molecular mechanism, we think that the TT genotype may be protective against coronary artery disease due to its positive relationship with HDL level. Key Words: CXCL12, Polymorphism, rs1801157, Coronary Artery Disease