Length polymorphism of the B2-VNTR minisatellite repeat of the bradykinin B2 receptor gene in healthy Russians and patients with coronary heart disease

Bradykinin B2 receptor is involved in many processes, including the regulation of blood pressure and smooth muscle contraction, vasodilation, inflammation, edema, cell proliferation, and pain. This receptor attracts special attention as one of the factors that have cardioprotective and infarct-limiting effects. Certain genetic variants of the coding and noncoding regions of the bradykinin B2 receptor gene (BDKRB2) may play a role in modulating its expression. The 3′-untranslated region of BDKRB2 exon 3 harbors a minisatellite repeat (B2-VNTR), which affects the mRNA stability. Hence, it is of interest to study a possible association of B2-VNRT alleles with various forms of coronary heart disease (CHD). In our work the allele and genotype frequency distributions of B2-VNTR were compared between healthy individuals and patients with CHD (angina pectoris or myocardial infarction (MI)) of the Russian ethnic group. Based on its length polymorphism, B2-VNTR was classed with low-polymorphic non-hypervariable minisatellites. Three B2-VNTR alleles, which consisted of 43, 38, and 33 repeats, were observed in all investigated cohorts. The alleles with 43 and 33 repeats were the most prevalent. The allele and genotype frequencies of B2-VNTR did not significantly differ between males and females in control group, and also between healthy males and males with angina pectoris or MI. Thus, B2-VNTR length polymorphism was not associated with these clinical forms of CHD in males. However, we do not exclude the possibility of an association of the short B2-VNTR alleles (38 and 33 repeats) with a cardioprotective effect in females with CHD. This hypothesis requires further investigation.