ABSTRACT
Transforming growth factor- beta 1 [TGF- beta 1] is a multifunctional cytokine that exhibits vasculoprotective properties. Production and plasma levels of TGF- beta 1 are influenced by polymorphisms in the TGF- beta 1 gene. A T-C transition at nucleotide 29 of the TGF- beta 1 gene results in a Leu-Pro substitution at amino acid 10 of the signal peptide. We investigated whether the T29-C polymorphism of TGF- beta 1 is associated with myocardial infarction among a sample of Egyptian coronary artery diseased males. The study population consisted of 90 patients with angiographically proven myocardial infarction and 30 control individuals without signs or symptoms of myocardial infarction. Polymorphism-related genotypes were determined with allele-specific PCR [polymerase chain reaction]. In this study; we found no differences between patients with MI and healthy subjects regarding the genotype and allele frequencies of codon 10 TGF- beta 1 polymorphism. Thus, our results indicate that this polymorphism does not appear to predispose to the development of MI. There was an agreement between genotypes observed and those predicted by the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the control group [Codon 10, x[2] goodness of fit was not significant = 0.777, p; 0.87]. Negative association findings in this study did not exclude that TGF- beta 1 is a susceptibility locus for myocardial infarction, but further study on a larger scale is needed