The association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and A1/A2 polymorphism of glycoprotein IIIa gene

Glycoprotein IIIa (GpIIIa) is a membrane receptor, found in various tissues, that has two alleles: A1 and A2. Signalling cascade of GpIIIa is modulated by enzymes called calpains, proteases that may also influence glucose metabolism. There is one small study that shows a high association of A1/A2 polymorphism with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In our research we planned to evaluate the association of A1/A2 polymorphism with type 2 diabetes in a population of patients with ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI). The study comprised 352 individuals. From the cohort of patients hospitalised for STEMI we chose 113 patients with diagnosed diabetes (diabetic group) and 118 patients with STEMI and normal glucose metabolism (non-diabetic group). The population group consisted of 121 persons. Genotyping was performed by the restriction fragments length polymorphism (RFLP) method. The frequency of alleles in all groups was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The percentage of A2 allele carriers was comparable among all groups : 20.4% (diabetic patients), 23.7% (nondiabetic) and 21.5% (control group) (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in frequency of A2 allele among the groups. We have not observed any association between GpIIIa polymorphism with either type 2 diabetes or STEMI.