The 5A Allele of the MMP3-Gene Promoter Polymorphism Is a Risk Factor for Poor Outcome of Hemodialysis Patients.

Cardiovascular morbidity is the leading cause of death in dialysis patients and many risk factors have been involved in its pathogenesis. Genetic susceptibility may be of importance including polymorphism for matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3), which is an enzyme that catalyzes the degradation of collagen, proteoglycans, fibronectin, laminine and elastin. The MMP3 gene promoter contains an insertion/deletion polymorphism characterised by an array of 5 or 6 adenosine residues (5A/6A) at -1612 position. Literature data show that the 5A or 6A allele of the MMP3 gene shows different risk for cardiovascular and overall outcome in general population. The aim was to analyze the -1612 5A/6A promoter polymorphism in a group of hemodialysis patients and to correlate the findings with cardiovascular morbidity and 7-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. This study included 196 patients on hemodialysis for longer than six months at University Medical Center Zvezdara. The leading causes of end stage renal disease were hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Venous blood was collected on midweek dialysis session and genotype analysis was performed by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Among the 198 hemodialysis patients, there were 142 (72%) 5A/6A heterozygotes, 12 (6%) 5A/5A homozygotes, and 44 (22%) 6A/6A homozygotes. These data are consistent with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. After 7-year follow-up, the 5A homozygotes showed the lowest all-cause and cardiovascular survival, while the 6A homozygotes showed the highest cardiovascular survival. The 5A allele of the MMP3-gene promoter polymorphism is a potential risk factor in the poor outcome of hemodialysis patients.