Association of an allele on chromosome 9 and abdominal aortic aneurysm.

OBJECTIVE: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has been recognized as a multi-factorial disease with both genetic and environmental risk factors. A locus residing within non-coding DNA on chromosome 9p21.3 has recently been associated with AAA. To further investigate the significance of this site for AAA, we performed an association study on a large group of 3371 men aged 65-83 years of whom 513 had an AAA.
METHODS: All men were assessed for other risk factors in a uniform way and an ultrasound of the abdominal aorta was performed.
RESULTS: Our findings validated the strong association of the chromosome 9p21.3 SNPs rs10757278 and rs1333049 with AAA and demonstrated the upregulation of LINE-1 elements at the site of AAA.
CONCLUSION: This study confirms a reproducible association between risk alleles on chromosome 9p21.3 and AAA. We also provide preliminary evidence for an association of LINE-1 elements with AAA which will require further investigation.