Prevalence of angiotensin-converting enzyme, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, Factor v Leiden, prothrombin and apolipoprotein e gene polymorphisms in Morocco

Background: Evidence of the influence of genetic risk factors on cardiovascular diseases is more or less established. These genetic factors are involved in several pathways affecting blood pressure regulation, blood coagulation, homocysteine and lipid metabolisms.Aim: We evaluated frequencies of five genetic polymorphisms to assess their informativeness as markers for prospective clinical studies. Subjects and methods: 182 healthy Moroccan subjects were genotyped for ACE I/D by amplification alone and by amplification followed by enzymatic digestion for other polymorphisms. Results: Allele frequencies of ACE ID, MTHFR C677T were 76.6%, 26.9% for D and T alleles, respectively. APOE polymorphism showed 11.3%, 78.6% and 10.2% for the alleles E2, E3 and E4, respectively. The frequency for FII G20210A polymorphism was around 2.7% for A allele. Our data showed an absence of FVL mutation. Using allele frequencies, genetic distances between Moroccan and other populations revealed an independent variability of these polymorphisms. Conclusion: These values appear to be influenced by findings in European and African peoples, and may be considered in assessing the clinical significance of a predisposition to cardiovascular disease. © 2010 Informa UK, Ltd.