Association between genetic variations in TFR2 gene and coronary heart disease in Chinese

Abstract

Studies indicated that body iron stores were associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). Type 2 transferrin receptor (TFR2) participates in cellular iron overload and is related to cardiovascular disease. No studies investigated the associations between variants in TFR2 gene and CHD risk. We sought to investigate this association in a Chinese Han population and performed a case-control study recruiting 1264 CHD patients and 1264 age and sex frequency matched controls. TaqMan single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) allelic discrimination was used to examine genotypes of the tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) of TFR2. The plasma ferritin levels were measured by ELISA. We did not find significant associations between variants of TFR2 gene (including tagSNPs rs2075674 and rs7385804) and the risk of CHD. After adjustment for the conventional risk factors of CHD, such as smoking and age, the results did not materially alter. Interaction analyses indicated that there were no significant interactions between conventional risk factors of CHD and these two tagSNPs on CHD risk. Among different genotypes of these two tagSNPs, no significant differences in plasma ferritin levels were found. In summary, the variants of rs2075674 and rs7385804 in TFR2 gene were not associated with CHD risk in a Chinese Han population.