Genetics of intracerebral hemorrhage: Insights from candidate gene approaches

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a heterogeneous disease with genetic factors playing an important role. Association studies on a wide range of candidate pathways suggest a weak but significant effect for several alleles with ICH risk. Among the most widely investigated genes are those involved in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (e.g., angiotensin-converting enzyme), coagulation pathway (e.g., Factor XIII, Factor VII, platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase, Factor V Leiden, and beta1-tubulin), lipid metabolism (e.g., apolipoproteins (Apo)E, Apo(a), ApoH), homocysteine metabolism (e.g., methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase), inflammation (e.g., interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis-alpha) and other candidate pathways. To identify the robustness of the above associations with ICH, a search of Pubmed (1988 through December 2011) was performed, with searches limited to English-language studies conducted among adult human subjects. This article presents a review of the examined literature on the genetics of ICH.