Press release regarding a new article from the IIEG and the IMBS. Great collaboration!
Differences of myocardial infarction in men and women are not attributed to X chromosome
Myocardial
infarction differs in men and women. Women fall ill later, but they die from it
more often. Overall, men are affected more often. These and further differences
are not attributed to the X chromosome. This was discovered by an international
consortium under the direction of researchers from Lübeck in the largest study of
the X chromosome on genetic factors for coronary heart disease and myocardial
infarction. They report on it in “Scientific Reports”.
The
consortium CARDIoGRAMplusC4D investigated the human X chromosome for genetic
factors that could have an influence on coronary heart disease and myocardial
infarction for the first time. This was the first study ever to search for
triggers of complex diseases on the X chromosome.
Prof. Inke R. König and Dr. Christina Loley from the
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics at the University of Lübeck as
well as Prof. Jeanette Erdmann from the Institute for Integrative and
Experimental Genomics at the University of Lübeck conducted the study that
included 100,000 people. More than 80 scientists from 14 different countries
were involved. The study was mainly financed by the German Centre for
Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF) within the scope of the e:Med programme (e:AtheroSysMed).
The human genome consists of 22 so-called autosomes
and the two gonosomes X and Y. Men carry one X and one Y chromosome each, while
women have two X chromosomes. In comparison to the Y chromosome, which only carries
very few genes, the X chromosome contains around 2,000 genes. “Genome-wide
association studies (GWAS) have significantly contributed to our understanding
of the genetics of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction in the last
10 years. However, the X chromosome was always left out in these studies” says Jeanette
Erdmann.
This is mainly due to the methodology: for analyses
of the X chromosome, men and women have to be treated separately and methods specifically
adapted to the X chromosome are required. For their current study, the
researchers have developed a new evaluation pipeline for the analysis of the X
chromosome and have applied it to the largest data set of myocardial infarction
patients and healthy control subjects world-wide.
Surprisingly, the researchers of the consortium
could not identify a gene region on the X chromosome associated with the risk
of disease. Jeanette Erdmann says, “The result of this study astonished us all,
since it has been known for many years that cardiovascular diseases occur at
different points in time and vary in severity in men and women. The gonosomes were
held responsible for these differences too”. Thus, the study suggests that
other factors such as hormones, nutrition or lifestyle must be responsible for
the differences.
Inke König adds, “Due to the unique size of our
study, we can almost certainly exclude that we overlooked relevant associations.
Therefore, we will now intensify our search for other factors that can explain the
differences between women and men in myocardial infarction.”
Prof. Heribert Schunkert (Deutsches Herzzentrum
Munich), also involved in the study adds: “This is an important step for
developing gender-specific preventative care or even therapeutic strategies“.
Link to original paper: www.nature.com/articles/srep35278
We are very happy that finally we got this important paper published. It took us several trys - several journals not even forwarded the paper to reviewers because we report "no associations". In the end "Scientific Reports" made us happy. Thanks!
JE
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