Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in India. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is involved in the development of hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardio, and cerebrovascular disease and is a plausible genetic candidate for stroke. The role of ACE polymorphism is still uncertain and requires further investigation.
Objective: The aim of this study was to study the role of ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in acute ischemic stroke (AIS).
Materials and methods: One hundred thirty AIS cases and 130 age and sex matched healthy controls were recruited. Ten milliliters venous blood was drawn and 6 mL of blood was used for routine hematological, biochemical tests. Remaining 4 mL of EDTA blood was used for DNA extraction, PCR amplification, and restriction digestion. Three genotypes (II, ID, and DD) were visualized on 3% agarose gel. Association between genotypes among stroke case was done by Chi-square test with P value <0.05 taken as significant.
Results: DD genotype was significantly associated with the risk of stroke with P value of 0.0001. Both the dominant and recessive models showed that the DD genotype was independently associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (OR = 20.732; 95% CI: 2.7241-157.7864; P value = 0.003 for the recessive model and OR = 2.848; 95% CI: 1.5127-5.3649; P value = 0.001 for dominant model).
Conclusions: Our study showed a strong association between ACE polymorphism and the risk of AIS. This study paves the way for further studies to confirm the role of ACE polymorphism as genetic risk factors for AIS.
Keywords: ACE; angiotensin converting enzyme; genetic polymorphism; ischemic stroke.