Association study between variants in the fibrinogen gene cluster, fibrinogen levels and hypertension: Results from the MONICA/ KORA study

Melanie Kolz; Jens Baumert; Henning Gohlke; Harald Grallert; Angela Döring; Annette Peters; Erich H. Wichmann; Wolfgang Koenig; Thomas Illig

doi:10.1160/TH08-06-0411

Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Table of Contents

Thromb Haemost 2009; 101(02): 317-324
DOI: 10.1160/TH08-06-0411

Blood Coagulation, Fibrinolysis and Cellular Haemostasis

Schattauer GmbH

Association study between variants in the fibrinogen gene cluster, fibrinogen levels and hypertension: Results from the MONICA/ KORA study

Melanie Kolz

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Jens Baumert

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Henning Gohlke

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Harald Grallert

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Angela Döring

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Annette Peters

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

,

Erich H. Wichmann

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

²IBE, Chair of Epidemiology, University of Munich, Germany

,

Wolfgang Koenig

³Department of Internal Medicine II-Cardiology, University of Ulm Medical Center, Ulm, Germany

,

Thomas Illig

¹Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Summary

Previous studies reported a gender-specific association between plasma fibrinogen concentrations and incident hypertension. We systematically analysed polymorphisms and haplotypes across the fibrinogen gene cluster with fibrinogen levels and assessed their contribution to prevalent hypertension in 2,200 men and 2,159 women from the population-based MONICA/KORA Augsburg study. Eleven tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were systematically selected in the three fibrinogen genes and haplotypes were reconstructed. The minor alleles of two SNPs, rs2227401 (FGB) and rs2070016 (FGA) and the haplotypes tagged by those variants, were significantly associated with higher fibrinogen concentrations in both, men and women, explaining 1% of the total variance of fibrinogen concentrations. In addition, a FGG haplotype, tagged by rs1049636, was associated with lower concentrations of fibrinogen in women, but not in men. Regarding hypertension, we detected a significant association with a FGA promoter variant (rs2070008) in women only, whereas fibrinogen haplotypes were not associated with hyper-tension after correction for multiple comparisons in either men or women. In conclusion, our results suggest that variants in all three fibrinogen genes are significantly associated with differences in fibrinogen concentrations with modest contribution to phenotypic variance. It is likely that other genetic variants outside the fibrinogen gene loci are involved in the regulation of fibrinogen concentrations. In addition, one FGA promoter variant was significantly associated with hypertension in women. Confirmation of these findings by future studies is warranted.

Keywords

Hypertension - fibrinogen - genetics - haplotypes

Full Text

References

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