Gene Polymorphism of rs556621 but Not rs11984041 is Associated with the Risk of Large Artery Atherosclerotic Stroke in a Xinjiang Uyghur Population

Background: Stroke is one of the main causes of death and adult chronic disability. Recently, 2 independent genome-wide association studies reported that the genetic variants (rs556621 and rs11984041) are significantly associated with large artery atherosclerosis (LAA). Methods: To determine whether these 2 variants are associated with the pathogenesis of LAA in stroke patients from the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China, both variants were evaluated in a series of 733 LAA stroke patients (434 Han and 299 Uyghur) and 725 age-, gender-, smoking-, alcohol habits-and ethnicity-matched controls (401 Han and 324 Uyghur). Results: For rs556621, significant differences in genotypic and allelic distributions were observed between Uyghur patients and controls (P = .045 for genotypic distribution, P = .042 for allelic distribution) but not in the Chinese Han cohort (P > .05). No significant differences were found in genotypic and allele distributions between patients and controls for rs11984041 in either the Chinese Han or Uyghur cohort (P > .05). Conclusions: The variant rs556621 but not rs11984041 may increase susceptibility of LAA stroke in the Xinjiang Uyghur population.