Korean J Stroke.  2011 Aug;13(2):66-73.

Association between Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of alpha2A-, alpha2B-, and alpha2C-Adrenergic Receptor Genes and Risk of Cerebral White Matter Lesion

• Kim MH
• An SA
• Lee HB
• Choo SW
• Kim NK
• Kim WC
• Kim OJ
• Oh SH

Abstract

BACKGROUND
An alpha2-adrenergic receptor (alpha2-AR, ADRA2) mediates induction of hypotension and inhibition of lipolysis and insulin secretion. We evaluated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of alpha2A (ADRA2A), alpha2B (ADRA2B), and alpha2C (ADRA2C) adrenergic receptors are associated with cerebral white matter lesion (cWML).
METHODS
Total 336 study subjects who had no stroke were enrolled in this study. The Indices of cWML include total WML (TWML), periventricular WML (PVWML), and subcortical WML (SCWML) on brain fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) image. Common genetic variants of ADRA2A (1780G>A), ADRA2B (Ins/Del301-303), and ADRA2C (Ins/Del322-325) were examined.
RESULTS
Among 336 study subjects, cWML was found in 66 patients (20%). In multivariate analysis, there were no significant effects of all tested ADRA2 polymorphisms on TWML. Significant association of ADRA2A 1780 AA genotype was found in PVWML (OR: 3.368, 95% CIs: 1.280-8.865, adjusted p-value after false discovery rate (FDR) correction=0.014) but not SCWML.
CONCLUSION
Although SNPs of three ADRA2 subtypes failed to reach a significance in overall risk for cWML, the ADRA2A 1780G>A polymorphism may be associated with development of PVWML.

Keyword

Alpha2-adrenergic receptor; Polymorphism; Cerebral white matter lesion

MeSH Terms

Brain
Genotype
Humans
Hypotension
Insulin
Lipolysis
Multivariate Analysis
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Receptors, Adrenergic
Stroke
Insulin
Receptors, Adrenergic