Genetic Polymorphisms of Estrogen Receptors in Iranian Women with Diabetes and Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Estrogen might play an important role in the pathogenesis ofdiabetes mellitus type 2. Estrogens inhibit diabetes via distinctmechanisms particularly by reducing both hyperglycemia andplasma insulin levels. Estrogen exerts its physiological effectsmainly through estrogen receptors including α and β types. Estrogenreceptors are found in many tissues that participate in thepathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Two common polymorphisms,PvuII and XbaI in estrogen receptor α gene, are reported to beassociated with decreased receptor activity and increased risk ofdiabetes. We aimed to investigate the association between estrogenreceptor α polymorphisms and diabetes, where a geneticcomponent may be the major risk factor for this disease. Onehundred women with diabetes type 2 were compared with onehundred women without diabetes for PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms.Of whom 61% of cases and 29% of controls had coronaryartery disease. The participants were genotyped for thesepolymorphisms using polymerase chain reaction and restrictionfragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Thegenotype distribution and frequency of mutated allele showedno significant differences between diabetic and non-diabeticgroups in PvuII (χ2=0.981; P=0.612) and XbaI (χ2=0.362;P=0.83) polymorphisms. When coronary artery disease as thepotential confounding factor was controlled by logistic regressionanalysis, it was found that the PvuII and XbaI variantswere not related to the type 2 diabetes mellitus (P=0.60 andP=0.99, respectively). Neither PvuII nor XbaI genotypes wasassociated with increased susceptibility to the type 2 diabetesmellitus in selected Iranian women with diabetes and coronaryartery disease.

Keywords

• Estrogen
• PvuII
• XbaI
• diabetes
• coronary artery disease
• estrogen receptor