Pro-inflammatory genetic profile and familiarity of acute myocardial infarction

This study showed that a genetic signature consisting of the concomitant presence of the CC genotype of VEGF, the A allele of IL-10 and the A allele of IFN-γ was indeed present in the Offs population. In fact, the above genetic markers were more frequent in unaffected Offs (46.4%) and patients with sporadic AMI (31.8%) than in the CTR (17.3%) and the differences were highly statistically significant (Offs vs CTR: p？=？0.0001, OR？=？4.129; AMI vs CTR: p？=？0.0001, OR？=？2.224). During the 24-year follow-up, Offs with a positive familiarity in spite of a relatively young age showed an increased prevalence of diabetes, ischemic heart disease and stroke. These findings reinforce the notion that subjects with a familial history of AMI are at risk of an accelerated aging of cardiovascular system resulting in cardiovascular events.Our data suggest that selected genes with immune regulatory functions are part of the complex genetic background contributing to familiarity for cardiovascular diseases. This inflammatory genetic profile, along with classical cardiovascular risk factors, may be used for better defining individual risk of AMI in unaffected subjects.