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Functional polymorphisms of FGA, encoding α fibrinogen, are associated with susceptibility to venous thromboembolism in a Taiwanese population

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Abstract

To determine the genetic risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE), this study examined 14 genetic variants from 10 hemostatic genes in 186 Taiwanese VTE patients and the same number of matched controls, which demonstrated FGA (encoding α fibrinogen) Thr312Ala polymorphism was the only variant significantly associated with VTE. Nine genetic polymorphisms on the fibrinogen cluster region of chromosome 4q28 were further studied, in which four FGA polymorphisms were found in strong linkage disequilibrium and were significantly associated with VTE by genotype and allele frequency analyses. Haplotype analysis showed significantly different FGA haplotype frequencies between VTE patients and controls with the haplotype F1, containing -1051G, -3A, 312Ala and TaqI duplication alleles, significantly associated with susceptibility to VTE (P=0.001). Haplotype-pair analysis results also indicated a strong association of the haplotype-pair F1F1 with VTE in various VTE patient subgroups. In vitro functional analysis indicated that FGA -1051G, -3A and TaqI duplication alleles enhanced significantly the transcription level of FGA; however, control subjects with FGA genotypes containing these alleles had no elevated plasma fibrinogen levels. In conclusion, our experimental data indicated that functional genetic variants in FGA are risk factors for VTE in Taiwanese populations. Determination of FGA genotypes will likely contribute to primary prevention of this condition.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Professor Daniele Fallin in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, John Hopkins University for her kind assistance in haplotype analysis. The authors would like to thank Chang-Gung Medical Research Program for financially supporting this research under Contract Nos. CMRP 754, 1115, G1014 and G32072.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Cardiovascular Division, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, No. 199, Tung-Hwa North Road, Taipei, , Taiwan, ROC

    Yu-Lin Ko, Lung-An Hsu, Tsu-Shiu Hsu, Ming-Sheng Teng, Semon Wu, Chi-Jen Chang & Ying-Shiung Lee

  2. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, , Taiwan, ROC

    Chia-Ti Tsai

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  1. Yu-Lin Ko
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  2. Lung-An Hsu
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Correspondence to Yu-Lin Ko.

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Ko, YL., Hsu, LA., Hsu, TS. et al. Functional polymorphisms of FGA, encoding α fibrinogen, are associated with susceptibility to venous thromboembolism in a Taiwanese population. Hum Genet 119, 84–91 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-005-0102-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-005-0102-0

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