Catechol-O-methyltransferase promoter hypomethylation is associated with the risk of coronary heart disease

Jinyan Zhong; Xiaoying Chen; Nan Wu; Caijie Shen; Hanbin Cui; Weiping Du; Zhaoxia Zhang; Mingjun Feng; Junsong Liu; Shaoyi Lin; Lulu Zhang; Jian Wang; Xiaomin Chen; Shiwei Duan

doi:10.3892/etm.2016.3757

Catechol-O-methyltransferase promoter hypomethylation is associated with the risk of coronary heart disease

Exp Ther Med. 2016 Nov;12(5):3445-3449. doi: 10.3892/etm.2016.3757. Epub 2016 Sep 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Ningbo First Hospital, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315010, P.R. China.
² Medical Genetics Center, School of Medicine, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, P.R. China.
³ Department of Cardiology, Ningbo Seventh Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315202, P.R. China.

Abstract

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene variation is known to be associated with the risk of acute coronary events. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the contribution of COMT promoter methylation towards the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). COMT methylation was evaluated in 48 CHD cases and 48 well-matched non-CHD controls using bisulfite pyrosequencing technology. The results demonstrated that CHD cases had a significantly lower level of methylation at COMT CpG3 sites compared with the controls (33.77±5.71 vs. 36.42±5.00%; P=0.018). Further analysis, according to gender, showed that CpG3 methylation was associated with CHD in males (P=0.038) but not in females (P=0.253), suggesting that there is a gender disparity in the association between COMT methylation and CHD. In conclusion, it was determined that COMT CpG3 hypomethylation is associated with an increased risk of CHD in males.

Keywords: DNA methylation; catechol-O-methyltransferase; coronary heart disease; male; promoter.