Association of genetic variations in the Wnt signaling pathway genes with myocardial infarction susceptibility in Chinese Han population

// Jing Tao 1,* , Yong-tao Wang 1,* , Mayila Abudoukelimu 1 , Yi-ning Yang 1 , Xiao-mei Li 1 , Xiang Xie 1 , Bang-dang Chen 2 , Fen Liu 2 , Chun-hui He 1 , Hua-yin Li 1 and Yi-tong Ma 1 1 Department of Cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China 2 Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease Research, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors Correspondence to: Yi-tong Ma, email: // or // Keywords : myocardial infarction; Wnt signaling pathway; polymorphism; susceptibility; Pathology Section Received : April 26, 2016 Accepted : June 18, 2016 Published : July 04, 2016 Abstract Numerous studies have implicated the Wnt pathway in the development and progression of myocardial infarction (MI); however, there are very few investigations addressing the effects of polymorphisms in the Wnt pathway genes on MI susceptibility. We investigated the possible correlation between genetic variations in Wnt pathway genes and MI risk. Three polymorphisms (rs7832767 C > T in SFRP1 gene, rs2293303 C > T in CTNNB1 gene, rs16893344 C > T in WISP1 gene) were finally selected and genotyped in 465 MI patients and 485 healthy controls, using the PCR-RFLP method. We found that the SFRP1 rs7832767 variant allele (T) was associated with a significantly increased risk of MI [TT vs. CC: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.78-5.51; CT/TT vs. CC: AOR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.12-2.08; TT vs. CC/CT: AOR = 2.87, 95% CI = 1.66-4.97)]. The significant association with MI risk was also found for the CTNNB1 rs2293303 (CT vs. CC: AOR = 3.48, 95% CI = 2.28-5.33; TT vs. CC: AOR = 7.37, 95% CI = 2.08-26.16; CT/TT vs. CC: AOR = 3.72, 95% CI = 2.46-5.62; TT vs. CC/CT: AOR = 5.52, 95% CI = 1.58-19.28), and WISP1 rs16893344 polymorphisms (CT vs. CC: AOR = 2.43, 95% CI = 1.70-3.47; TT vs. CC: AOR = 5.17, 95% CI = 1.85-14.41; CT/TT vs. CC: AOR = 2.58, 95% CI = 1.83-3.66; TT vs. CC/CT: AOR = 3.88, 95% CI = 1.41-10.64). The associations remain significant in stratified analysis by demographic and clinical characteristics of participants, with few exceptions. Our study provided the first evidence of the association between polymorphisms in the Wnt pathway genes and MI susceptibility in Chinese Han population. Epidemiological studies with larger samples and functional analyses are warranted to further verify our results.