RESEARCH ARTICLE


Low HDL Cholesterol, Smoking and IL-13 R130Q Polymorphism are Associated with Myocardial Infarction in Greek Cypriot Males. A Pilot Study



Stavroulla Xenophontos1, Marilena Hadjivassiliou1, Alexandros Karagrigoriou2, Nafsika Demetriou1, George Miltiadous3, Ioannis Marcou4, Moses Elisaf3, Dimitri P Mikhailidis5, Marios A Cariolou*, 1
1 Department of Cardiovascular Genetics & The Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus
2 Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
3 Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
4 Department of Internal Medicine, Nicosia General Hospital, Nicosia, Cyprus
5 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Free Hospital Campus, University College London, Pond Street, London, NW3 2 QG, UK


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Creative Commons License
© Xenophontos et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Cardiovascular Genetics & The Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 6 Airport Avenue, 1683 Nicosia, Cyprus; Tel: 0035722392651; Fax: 0035722392638; E-mail: cariolou@cing.ac.cy


Abstract

This study was carried out in Greek Cypriot males to identify risk factors that predispose to myocardial infarction (MI). Genetic and lipid risk factors were investigated for the first time in a Greek Cypriot male case-control study.Contrary to other studies, mean low density lipoprotein cholesterol did not differ between cases and controls. High density lipoprotein cholesterol on the other hand, although within normal range in cases and controls, was significantly higher in the control population. In agreement with many other studies, smoking was significantly more prevalent in cases compared with controls. In pooled cases and controls, smokers had a significantly lower HDL-C level compared with non-smokers. The frequency of the IL-13 R130Q homozygotes for the mutation (QQ), as well as the mutant allele were significantly higher in cases compared with controls. The IL-13 R130Q variant, or another locus, linked to it, may increase the risk of MI.

Key Words: Smoking, myocardial infarction, cholesterol, Cyprus .