Gene Variations of ROCKs and Risk of Ischemic Stroke: The Women{'}s Genome Health Study

Recent animal and human studies have demonstrated the importance of RhoA/Rho-associated kinases (ROCKs) pathway in ischemic stroke (IsST). Whether the genetic variation within ROCKs-associated genes modulates IsST risk remains elusive. The association between 66 tag-SNPs (tSNPs) of 3 ROCKs-associated genes (ROCK1, ROCK2 and ARHGEF10) and incident IsST was investigated in 23,294 Caucasian female participants of the prospective Women's Genome Health Study. All were free of known cancer and cardiovascular disease at baseline. During a 15-year follow-up period, 323 participants developed a first ever IsST. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between genotypes and IsST risk assuming an additive genetic model. Haplotype-block analysis was also performed. A total of ten tSNPs were associated with IsST risk (three in ARHGEF10, and seven in ROCK1; all p<0.050). Further investigation using the haplotype-block analysis revealed similar significant association of pre-specified haplotypes of ROCK1 with IsST risk (p=0.005). If corroborated in other large prospective studies, the present findings suggest that genetic variation within the ROCKs-associated pathway gene loci examined, in particular, the ROCK1 gene variation may influence IsST risk.
Source: Clinical Science - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research