Scientists discover gene module underlying atherosclerosis development

By measuring the total gene activity in organs relevant for coronary artery disease (CAD), scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have identified a module of genes that is important for the recruitment of white blood cells into the atherosclerotic plaque. The findings, which are to be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, suggest that targeting the migration of white blood cells in the development of atherosclerosis may help to reduce the risk for adverse clinical effects such as ischemia and myocardial infarction. Atherosclerosis is the major cause of myocardial infarction and stroke, and is responsible for half of all deaths in Sweden and other Western countries. Complications of atherosclerosis are rapidly increasing as a major cause of death also in developing countries; the World Health Organisation has predicted that this will become the number one killer by 2010. "It has been an exciting research project, which has gone on for nearly seven years, involving many different disciplines from thoracic surgeons to mathematicians", says team leader Johan Björkegren at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. "I believe that this kind of clinical study will follow in the aftermath of the large number of ongoing genome-wide association studies." Rather than individual genes or individual DNA variants, the discovery encompasses a group of 128 functionally related genes in a 'module' or 'network', which explains their mutual interactions. The involvement of most of these genes in CAD has not previously been known, but it has been known that they are involved in endothelial function and angiogenesis.