Increased amount of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) mRNA originating from the ACE allele with deletion.

The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in intron 16 of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene is involved in the development of cardiovascular diseases. We compared the ACE mRNA expression originating from the allele with a deletion (D allele) and that from the allele with an insertion (I allele) in human white blood cells from ID heterozygotes. We identified the mRNA from the I allele by using the G2215A polymorphism that lies in exon 15 and that was linked to the I/D polymorphism. RNA samples were obtained from 12 healthy heterozygotes of both I/D and G2215A, and every insertion was shown to be linked to 2215G. ACE mRNA was amplified by the reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method with an end-labeled antisense primer. The PCR products were digested with HaeII and separated by electrophoresis, and the relative radioactivities of the 2215A and 2215G bands were measured on an auto-image analyzer. The results showed that, in every cases, the intensity of the 2215A product (D allele origin) was higher than that of the 2215G product (I allele origin). The mean ratio of 2215A to 2215G was 1.79 (1.11-2.62). Thus, the D allele leads to higher expression of the ACE mRNA and may affect the renin-angiotensin system in local regions.