Coronary heart disease is still the main reason for death in western industrial states. The gold standard therapy to treat coronary heart disease is coronary intervention. But the long term success is restricted by restenosis. It is suggested that there are genetical factors which play an essential role for restenosis. Combined evidence suggests that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), a transcription factor structurally related to the nuclear receptors for steroids and thyroid hormones, is associated with atherosclerosis and restenosis. The problem is that lot of studies which support an association between PPARγ and restenosis/atherosclerosis examined PPARγ by PPARγ-agonists which can have anti-inflammatory effects independent of PPARγ. There are only few studies which examined PPARγ directly. So we decided to investigate PPARγ by two single nucleotide polymorphisms to examine if there is a possible association between PPARγ and restenosis. There is evidence that the 34C/G and the 1431C/T polymorphsisms of the PPARγ-gene are associated with atherosclerosis. As atherosclerosis and restenosis have a similar pathomecanisms it may be possible that, if there is an association between the 34C/G and 1431C/T polymorphisms and atherosclerosis, there could also be an association between these polymorphisms and restenosis. In our study we addressed the question of whether the 34C/G and 1431C/T polymorphisms of the PPARγ gene are associated with restenosis and other major adverse events like subacute thrombosis or death within one year after coronary intervention. We therefore examined a group of 1001 patients with and without diabetes who either were stented or only were treated with ballon dilatation without stent implantation after coronary intervention, as well as a group of 935 diabetics who were all stented after coronary intervention. We questioned if there is a difference in grade of restenosis in diabetics compared with non-diabetics. Furthermore we examined if the kind of intervention (ballon dilatation of the vessel with or without stent implantation) does influence the possible association between the 34C/G and 1431C/T polymorphisms and restenosis. No patient was treated with thiazolidinedione as they are PPARγ-acivators. The 34C/G and 1431C/T polymorphisms were analysed by using the TaqMan technique. We did not find any significant association between the 34C/G and 1431C/T polymorphisms and restenosis or other major adverse events (subacute thrombosis or death after one year follow up), neither in the group of 1001 patients nor in the diabetic group. There was also no influence of the kind of intervention (ballon dilatation of the vessel with or without stent implantation) on a possible association between the polymorphisms and restenosis. Much more studies must be done to purify the role of PPARγ in atherosclerosis and restenosis. In the meantime there exists a haplotype card of most of the polymorphisms in the human genome. So it is now possible to examine the whole PPARγ gene for a possible association with restenosis/atherosclerosis. Such a procedure would be much more effective than the examination of only one or two polymorphisms.
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Coronary heart disease is still the main reason for death in western industrial states. The gold standard therapy to treat coronary heart disease is coronary intervention. But the long term success is restricted by restenosis. It is suggested that there are genetical factors which play an essential role for restenosis. Combined evidence suggests that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), a transcription factor structurally related to the nuclear receptors for steroids and thy...
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