Genetic cardiovascular risk factors and age‐related macular degeneration

Purpose: To investigate the association between genetic cardiovascular risk factors and exudative age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) in a White Austrian population. Methods: Seventy‐five unrelated AMD patients and 75 unrelated healthy, sex‐ and age‐matched control patients were genotyped for the following 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 14 different genes: blood coagulation factor V (FV) R506Q, factor II (prothrombin) G20210A and factor XIII (FXIII) V34L; 5,10‐methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, A1298C; plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI‐1) 4G/5G; endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) 4600 A>G (A3 haplotype), 4678 G>C (A1 haplotype); apolipoprotein B (ApoB) R3500Q; apolipoprotein E (ApoE) E2/E3/E4; β‐fibrinogen ?455 G>A; human platelet antigen 1 (HPA1) a/b; angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) I/D; endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) 786 T>C, 894 G>T; lymphotoxin alpha (LTA) 804 C>A and 9p21 rs10757278. Genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by reverse hybridization (CVD StripAssays; ViennaLab Diagnostics, Vienna, Austria). Results: No statistically significant association could be observed between AMD and the investigated genetic risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). All factors seem to be uniformly distributed in the two groups of AMD patients and healthy controls. Two variables –β‐fibrinogen: ?455 G>A (p = 0.0786) and apolipoprotein E4 (p = 0.0636) – were not as far from association as the others. Conclusion: Our data show that the 19 tested CVD risk markers do not play a significant role in AMD. β‐Fibrinogen and apolipoprotein E4 should be examined in a larger cohort.