Background: Recently, the 5-lipoxygenase activating protein gene (ALOX5AP) was reported to confer a risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke, independent of conventional risk factors. The purpose of the present study was to validate those findings in a Japanese population.
Methods and results: The study population consisted of 1,875 subjects (males 871, females 1,004) recruited from the Suita study (control group) and 353 subjects (males 306, females 47) with MI. The promoter, all of the exons, and 3'UTR regions of ALOX5AP were sequenced in 96 subjects, and 8 polymorphisms were found. There were significant differences in the frequencies of the haplotypes constructed from the 2 SNPs (A162C and T8733A) between the control and MI groups. Multiple logistic analysis indicated that the homozygous genotype of the (CA) haplotype was significantly associated with a reduced risk for MI.
Conclusion: The hypothesis that ALOX5AP contributes to susceptibility for MI was validated in a Japanese population.