Further Evidence That the UGT1A1*28 Allele Is Not Associated with Coronary Heart Disease: The ECTIM Study

In their recent paper in Clinical Chemistry , Bosma et al. (1) were unable to demonstrate a protective effect of the UGT1A1*28 allele against coronary heart disease (CHD). This was surprising because individuals homozygous for the UGT1A1*28 allele have higher serum bilirubin than do heterozygous or homozygous wild-type individuals and serum bilirubin concentration is inversely related to risk of CHD(2)(3). We studied UGT1A1 bilirubin uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl transferase genotypes in the ECTIM case-control study of myocardial infarction (MI) (4). The study was conducted on a predefined subsample of the ECTIM Study population. DNA was available for 366 male cases and 314 male controls [from Strasbourg and Toulouse: 181 cases with mean (SD) age 53.7 (8.0) years and 159 controls, with mean (SD) age 52.7 (8.7) years; from Northern Ireland: 185 cases with mean (SD) age 54.8 (8.0), and 155 controls, with mean …