Role of Promoter Polymorphisms in the Plasma Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx-3) Gene as a Risk Factor for Cerebral Venous Thrombosis

Background and Purpose— Plasma glutathione peroxidase (GPx-3) is a major antioxidant enzyme in plasma and the extracellular space that scavenges reactive oxygen species produced during normal metabolism or after oxidative insult. A deficiency of this enzyme increases extracellular oxidant stress, promotes platelet activation, and may promote oxidative posttranslational modification of fibrinogen. We recently identified a haplotype (H2) in the GPx-3 gene promoter that increases the risk of arterial ischemic stroke among children and young adults. Methods— The aim of this study is to identify possible relationships between promoter haplotypes in the GPx-3 gene and cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). We studied the GPx-3 gene promoter from 23 patients with CVT and 123 young controls (18 to 45 years) by single-stranded conformational polymorphism and sequencing analysis. Results— Over half of CVT patients (52.1%) were heterozygous (H1H2) or homozygous (H2H2) carriers of the H2 haplotype compared with 12.2% of c...