Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 gene polymorphism associated with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is a particularly important molecule in down-regulating T-cell expansion and cytokine production. The purpose of the present study was to determine the frequency distribution of an A/G single nucleotide polymorphism at position 49 in exon 1 of the CTLA-4 gene, which may be a functional related-genetic risk marker for the development of ST-segment elevation (ST-se) acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

A total of 503 consecutive patients, consisting of 250 ST-se AMI patients undergoing primary coronary angioplasty (group 1), 203 angina pectoris patients undergoing elective coronary angioplasty (group 2) and 50 patients with chest pain and normal coronary angiographic findings (group 3), were enrolled in the present study. The frequency of the G/G genotype was significantly higher in group 1 (53.2%) than in groups 2 (33.0%) and 3 (36.0%) (p=0.0005). In group 1, patients with a G/G genotype had significantly higher levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts, and much higher incidences of multi-vessel disease, greater lesion lengths, advanced congestive heart failure (>or=class 3) and 30-day mortality, than patients with G/A or A/A genotypes (p values<0.05 in all cases). Multivariate analysis of the enrolled baseline variables (age, gender, diabetes mellitus, smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia) and the genotypes (G/G, A/G and A/A) demonstrated that G/G genotype is the only independent predictor of development of AMI (p<0.0001).

The G/G genotype polymorphism of the CTLA-4 gene is associated with increased risk of AMI.