Genetic Background of Myocardial Infarction

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a common disease whose pathogenesis includes genetic factors, and it is among the leading causes of death. In 2000, we started a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for MI using nearly 90,000 gene-based single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and identified lymphotoxin-a (LTA) conferring risk of MI in Japanese population. This was the first GWAS that identified a disease susceptibility gene in the world. Moreover, through examining the LTA cascade by combination of biological and genetic analyses, we have identified additional MI-susceptible genes, LGALS2, PSMA6, and BRAP, so far. We present here our recent work focused on identification and functional analyses of genes that confer risk of MI.