Association of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptor gene polymorphisms with coronary artery lesions of Kawasaki disease

• Published in: Pediatric research Vol. 56; no. 6; pp. 953 - 959
• Main Authors: KARIYAZONO, Hidehiko, OHNO, Takuro, KHAJOEE, Vahid, IHARA, Kenji, KUSUHARA, Koichi, KINUKAWA, Naoko, MIZUNO, Yumi, HARA, Toshiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 01.12.2004
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child, Preschool; Coronary Vessels - pathology; Gene Frequency; General aspects; Genetic Predisposition to Disease - epidemiology; Genotype; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Linkage Disequilibrium; Luciferases - genetics; Medical sciences; Microsatellite Repeats; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome - epidemiology; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome - genetics; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome - pathology; Multivariate Analysis; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Risk Factors; Sarcoidosis. Granulomatous diseases of unproved etiology. Connective tissue diseases. Elastic tissue diseases. Vasculitis; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - genetics; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-1 - genetics; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 - genetics; Kawasaki syndrome; Pediatrics; Genetic variability; Coronary artery; Cardiovascular disease; Autoimmune disease; Genotype; Vascular disease; Vasculitis; Association; Vascular endothelium growth factor; Systemic disease; Lesion; Polymorphism; Biological receptor
• ISSN: 0031-3998; 1530-0447
• DOI: 10.1203/01.PDR.0000145280.26284.B9

We analyzed the genetic polymorphisms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors [Fms-related tyrosine kinase-1, kinase insert domain receptor (KDR)] in Japanese patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) and normal control subjects to examine whether these genes would contribute to the KD occurrence and/or the development of coronary artery lesion (CAL) in KD. We found that the frequency of G allele of VEGF g.-634 G>C single-nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region was significantly higher in KD patients with CAL than in those without CAL (p = 0.012) or control subjects (p = 0.021) because of a significantly higher frequency of the GG genotype in KD patients with CAL. In addition, the frequency of the A1 allele with 11 AC repeats of KDR g.+4422(AC)11-14 dinucleotide repeat polymorphism in intron 2 was significantly higher in KD patients with CAL than in those without CAL (p = 0.013) or control subjects (p = 0.040) as a result of a significantly higher frequency of the A1A1 genotype in KD with CAL patients. The multivariate analysis of clinical features and genotypes of the two polymorphisms showed that the A1A1 genotype of KDR g.+4422(AC)11-14 polymorphism was an independent risk factor for the development of CAL with the highest odds ratio among several clinical parameters (odds ratio 6.76; 95% confidence interval 1.05-43.48). Dual luciferase assay demonstrated that the A1 allele with KDR g.+4422(AC)11 repeats showed a weaker silencer function than the A2 allele with 12 AC repeats. These findings suggested that VEGF and its receptor, KDR, genes contributed to the development of CAL in KD patients.