Lack of association between macrophage migration inhibitory factor-173 gene polymorphism with disease susceptibility and cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis patients from Northwestern Spain

CER396
2010 Vol.28, N°1
PI 0068, PF 0072
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PMID: 20346241 [PubMed]

Received: 13/05/2009
Accepted : 12/10/2009
In Press: 10/03/2010
Published: 15/03/2010

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
To assess whether the polymorphism of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) gene at the position -173 is implicated in the disease susceptibility, risk of cardiovascular (CV) events and presence of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).PATIENTS AND
METHODS:
A series of 293 unselected patients fulfilling the 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for RA seen at the rheumatology outpatient clinic of Hospital Xeral-Calde, Lugo, Spain and 526 matched controls were studied for differences in the MIF-173 G/C gene biallelic polymorphism. A total of 182 consecutive patients that had been periodically followed between March 1996 and September 1996 until patient`s death or January 1, 2008 were assessed for the presence of CV events. Moreover, between March and December 2007, a subgroup of unselected RA patients with no history of CV events was studied for the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis by the assessment of the endothelial function (n=107) and the carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) (n=91) by ultrasonography studies. Patients and controls were genotyped for the MIF-173 G/C gene polymorphism using a PCR system with pre-developed TaqMan allelic discrimination assay.
RESULTS:
No significant differences in allele or genotype frequencies for the MIF-173 gene polymorphism between RA patients and controls were found. Forty-four of the 182 patients followed between 1996 and January 2008 experienced CV events. Although the frequency of MIF-173 GG homozygous was increased in those who had CV events (88.6%) compared to those who did not suffer these complication (73.2%), the difference was not statistically significant. It was also the case when we analyzed the potential influence of MIF-173 genotypes in the presence of endothelial dysfunction or increased carotid IMT of patients with RA.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our results do not show that MIF-173 gene polymorphism may infer a direct risk for disease susceptibility or CV disease in patients with RA.