Thrombospondin-4 A387P polymorphism is not associated with coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction in the Chinese Han population

Recently, conflicting data have been reported regarding the possible contribution of the TSP-4 (thrombospondin-4) A387P polymorphism to CAD (coronary artery disease) or MI (myocardial infarction). To investigate a possible association between the A387P polymorphism and CAD or MI in the Chinese Han population, we conducted a case-controlled study including 817 patients with angiographically verified CAD or those who survived an acute MI and 847 control subjects. The TSP-4 A387P polymorphism was determined by PCR and PCR-RFLP (restriction-fragment-length polymorphism) analysis. The prevalence of the 387P allele was 3.8% in the healthy controls, which was less frequent than those in Western populations (19.6–23.2%). No association of the A387P polymorphism with an altered risk of CAD, MI or premature MI was found in our present study (CG+CC compared with GG, P_CAD=0.51, P_MI=0.13, P_{Premature MI}=0.17 respectively). We concluded that a relationship between the TSP-4 A387P polymorphism and CAD or MI was unlikely in our population. Additional investigations should be performed in populations at different risk of coronary events in order to elucidate further the possible contribution of this polymorphism to cardiovascular disease.