Association study between C-reactive protein polymorphisms and ischaemic stroke

C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, is strongly related to cardiovascular disease. Elevated CRP levels are considered to be a predictor of ischaemic stroke in elderly individuals. Recently, some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the CRP gene have been associated with serum CRP levels. However, associations between these SNPs and ischaemic stroke remain controversial. In this study, we accessed the association between two CRP SNPs and ischaemic stroke in Chinese Han population.

A population-based case-control study was conducted in 158 patients with ischaemic stroke and 290 control subjects. Two CRP SNPs, rs1130864 and rs3093059 were genotyped from patients using the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP)-based analysis. The haplotype-based association study was assessed with a permutation test.

rs1130864 and rs3093059 were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in control subjects. The genotype distributions of both genotypes were not statistically different between patients and controls. Because rs1130864 and rs3093059 presented strong linkage disequilibrium, three major haplotypes were identified as C-T, T-T, C-C. None of these haplotypes was associated with ischaemic stroke or its subtype before and after adjustment for traditional risk factors.

There is no association between rs1130864 or rs3093059 and ischaemic stroke in Chinese Han population.