Impact of thrombospondin-2 gene variations on the risk of thoracic aortic dissection in a Chinese Han population.

OBJECTIVE Genetic factors play an important role in thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) etiology and thrombospondin-2 gene (THBS2) polymorphisms may be involved. This study tried to examine the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) rs8089 of THBS2 for their association with TAD susceptibility in Chinese Han population. METHODS The rs8089 SNP of THBS2 was genotyped in 112 subjects who were diagnosed as TAD and in 184 age- and gender-matched matched controls. RESULTS The THBS2 rs8089 SNP was associated with increased TAD susceptibility for allele level comparison (P < 0.0001), and for dominant model (P = 0.0073) or extreme genotype model (P = 0.0459) in Chinese Han Population. But for the recessive model, no statistical difference was found (P = 0.099), which may be resulted from the relatively small sample size and low genotype frequency. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the present study suggested that the THBS2 rs8089 variant was associated with TAD, with the G allele representing a risk factor in a Chinese Han population.