Vascular endothelial growth factor A and cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

To determine the contribution of the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) rs2010963 (-634 G>C) and rs1570360 (-1154 G>A) polymorphisms to the risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease in a series of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Six hundred sixty-one patients fulfilling the 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for RA, seen at the rheumatology outpatient clinics of the Hospital Xeral-Calde, Lugo, and the Hospital San Carlos, Madrid, Spain, were studied. Patients were genotyped for the VEGFA rs2010963 (-634 G>C) and rs1570360 (-1154 G>A) polymorphisms using predesigned TaqMan single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assay (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Also, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DRB1 genotyping was performed using molecular-based methods. Clinical histories of the patients were reviewed for the presence of CV events that were considered to be present if the patient had ischemic heart disease, heart failure, cerebrovascular accident, or peripheral arteriopathy. Also, a subgroup of patients without the history of CV events was assessed for the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis manifested by the presence of endothelial dysfunction by brachial artery reactivity (n = 126) and increased carotid artery intima-media thickness (n = 105) using high resolution Doppler ultrasonography. No significant association between the VEGFA rs2010963 and the rs1570360 polymorphisms (neither isolated nor joined as allelic combinations) with clinically evident CV disease was found in this series of patients with RA. It was also the case when we examined the contribution of these polymorphisms to the development of subclinical atherosclerosis. VEGFA polymorphisms do not seem to exert a significant influence on the risk of CV disease in patients with RA.