Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the EPHX2 gene have been implicated in susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease (CHD). EPHX2 encodes for soluble epoxide hydrolase, an important enzyme involved in the metabolic breakdown of arachidonic acid-derived vasoactive and anti-inflammatory eicosanoids referred to as epoxyeicosatrienoic acids to their corresponding diols. Our pilot study aimed to investigate whether common SNPs such as rs751141, rs4149253, and rs1042064 of the EPHX2 gene are associated with susceptibility to CHD in Russian population.
Methods: A total of 1,183 unrelated Russian subjects comprising 602 patients with angiographically diagnosed CHD and 581 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects were recruited and their DNA samples were genotyped for the selected SNPs using a high-throughput Mass-ARRAY genotyping platform.
Results: No significant associations were found between the investigated SNPs and CHD risk (P>0.05). A polymorphism rs751141 (amino acid substitution, R287Q) displayed a trend towards association with CHD (odds ratio adjusted by sex and age was 3.02, 95% CI: 0.97–9.43, P correction =0.16). SNP-smoking interaction analyses did not identify synergic effects of the studied SNPs and cigarette smoking on the disease risk (P>0.05). A linkage disequilibrium was found between SNPs rs751141 and rs4149253 (D’ =0.995), rs751141 and rs1042064 (D’ =0.967), rs4149253 and rs1042064 (D’ =0.965). Four common haplotypes G-G-T (73%), A-G-C (10%), G-G-C (9%) and G-A-C (7%) have been identified, however, none of them showed a significant association with the risk of CHD in the studied population (P>0.05).
Conclusions: The investigated polymorphisms do not contribute to CHD susceptibility in our population. Nevertheless, because of a limited number of SNPs was investigated in this study, definitive conclusions yet to be made in further studies on the contribution of the EPHX2 gene to the development of CHD in Russians.
