Association of ACE I/D polymorphism with cardiovascular risk factors

Since the identification of an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene, the D allele has been recognized to be associated with cardiovascular disease. Moreover, significant associations of this polymorphism with multiple cardiovascular risk factors have been reported, although some studies failed to detect such associations. In the present study, we investigated the association of the ACE gene polymorphism with the parameters of multiple risk factors in 300 Japanese men who participated in a medical check-up. This investigation detected a significant association of the polymorphism with systolic blood pressure (P=0.007) and diastolic blood pressure (P=0.026), with their highest values in DD subjects and lowest values in II subjects. This significant association is consistent with the proposition that the polymorphism influences blood-pressure variability in men. Furthermore, we investigated the association of the polymorphism with four major disorders (obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus) correlated with the risk for cardiovascular disease in the same 300 subjects. This investigation failed to detect any significant association of the polymorphism with each disorder. However, there was a trend that all four disorders were more frequent in ID and DD subjects than in II subjects. We therefore analyzed the association between the ACE gene polymorphism and having at least one of the four disorders in the same population. This analysis detected a significant difference: that ID and DD subjects had at least one of the four disorders more frequently than II subjects (P=0.008; odds ratio=1.89, 95% confidence interval=1.19–2.99). Taken together, the results of this study are compatible with the proposition that the ACE polymorphism is associated with cardiovascular disease partially mediated through the four disorders in our population.