Influence of ApoB100 3' hypervariable repeats on acute myocardial infarction

The 3' flanking region of apolipoprotein B (ApoB) 100 gene is known to contain short A+T-rich DNA sequences which are hypervariable in nature and called the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs). It results in different alleles of ApoB100. The present study extends the investigation of whether there is a correlation between the presence of these alleles and acute myocardial infarction (MI).

We examined ApoB genotypes in 230 acute MI patients and 300 healthy controls. PCR based genotyping was done for ApoB 3' VNTRs.

We recoded 3'ApoB-VNTR alleles through three- and five-allelic models based on different sizes and found that large repeats (>37) were significantly associated with acute MI (p<0.0001). These large repeats (>37) were also significantly associated with higher lipid levels in the MI group.

Patients with 3'ApoB-VNTR large repeats (>37) are more susceptible to acute MI development.