Introduction: The prevalence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among young patients is increasing. Although the risk factors of AMI are well defined in the middle aged population, they are not clearly elucidated in young patients. Alternative risk factors such as genetic factors are being investigated. The P-selectin ligand gene, encoding P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1), plays a role in atherosclerosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether there is an association between the PSGL-1 variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism and AMI in a young Turkish population.
Material and methods: We examined 119 young patients, less than 40 years old, presenting ST elevation AMI and undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, and 53 sex and age matched controls with a normal coronary angiogram. Genomic DNAs were collected from whole blood samples by standard methods. The PSGL-1 was amplified by polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Ninety four (78.9%) showed AA, 15 (12.6%) showed AB, 4 (3.3%) showed BB, 4 (3.3%) showed AC and 2 (1.7%) showed BC genotype in the young AMI group, and 40 (75.4%) showed AA, 9 (16.9%) showed AB, 3 (5.6%) showed BB, 0 (0%) showed AC and 1 (1.8%) showed BC genotype in the control group. PSGL-1 VNTR genotype frequencies were similar between groups (p = 0.64). Smoking was significantly higher in the young AMI group (p = 0.025).
Conclusions: In this study, we found no significant difference between the PSGL-1 variable numbers of tandem repeats polymorphism and AMI in a young Turkish population. Further studies with additional polymorphisms are needed for further information about the genetic influences on premature myocardial infarction.