 
         
         Summary
         
         Inflammation plays a major role in coronary artery disease (CAD). We investigated
            the polymorphisms in the interleukin 6 (IL6) gene and their effect on the expression of acute-phase proteins in premature CAD
            in Asian Indian families. One hundred and ninety affected sibling pairs (ASPs) were
            genotyped for three tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IL6 gene for linkage analysis. We observed suggestive logarithm of odds (LOD) score for
            one SNP (rs2066992) in a subset of 62 ASPs with the age at onset less than 45 years
            (LOD score = 1.114, p = 0.011 in linkage analysis; pi = 0.55, p = 0.008 in identity
            by descent; LOD score = 1.06, p = 0.014 in quantitative trait locus for plasma levels
            of high sensitivity C-reactive protein, hsCRP). This was followed by sequencing of
            the promoter region and haplotype analysis in 46 probands and 40 controls. Five out
            of the eight previously reported promoter SNPs were found to be polymorphic (rs1800797,
            rs1800796, rs7802307, rs7802308, rs1800795). Two novel sequence variants were also
            found. One promoter haplotype (GGAAG) was detected with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.676
            (p = 0.0017, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.68 – 8.045) and population attributable
            risk of 21.1% (95%CI: 9.2%-31.5%). The plasma levels of both hsCRP and fibrinogen
            exhibited significant association with these promoter SNP genotypes (p < 0.001). In
            conclusion, IL6 gene polymorphisms appear to be important genetic factors in premature CAD, and in
            the regulation of key atherogenic markers in Asian Indian families.
         
         Keywords
Asian Indians - CAD - IL6 - CRP - fibrinogen