High-sensitivity C-reactive protein concentration in patients with myocardial infarction-environmental factors, and polymorphisms in interleukin-10 and CD14 genes

BACKGROUND: It has been shown that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentrations are associated with elevated risk of myocardial infarction, but the mechanisms regulating hsCRP concentration are not completely elucidated yet. In our study, association of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and CD14 polymorphisms and environmental factors with the risk of myocardial infarction was studied. METHODS: The study group consisted of 284 male patients aged below 65 years, admitted to hospital for myocardial infarction. The controls were age-matched individuals selected from a 1% representative population sample of adult men. RESULTS: While there was no difference in body mass index (BMI), the patients more frequently had abdominal-type obesity. hsCRP concentration was higher in patients (2.12+/-2.31 mg/L) than in controls (1.40+/-1.56 mg/L; p=0.001), in spite of statin treatment in most of the patients. No significant difference in lipoprotein concentrations was found. There was no difference in IL-10 and CD14 genotype distributions between the patients and controls. In smoking patients carrying the CD14 C allele, hsCRP concentration was significantly higher (p=0.0012) than in a non-smoking patients with the same allele. According to linear regression analysis, statin treatment was the only variable with an influence that reached statistical significance in the patient group, while in the control group, age, smoking, education and BMI significantly influenced hsCRP concentration. CONCLUSIONS: There was no association between IL-10 and CD14 polymorphisms and myocardial infarction occurrence. Gene-environment interaction may play an important role in influencing hsCRP concentration.