Philip Morris
Interactive Effect of the P53 Gene and Cigarette Smoking on Coronary Artery Disease
Fields
- Author
- Wang, J.
- Wang, X.L.
- Wilcken, Del
- Wang, X.L.
- Type
- PSCI, PUBLICATION SCIENTIFIC
- BIBL, BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Area
- CARCHMAN,RICHARD/OFFICE
- Litigation
- Iwoh/Produced
- Characteristic
- EXTR, EXTRA
- MARG, MARGINALIA
- Site
- R530
- Named Organization
- Eastern Heart Clinic
- Natl Health + Medical Research Council O
- Author (Organization)
- Prince of Wales Hospital
- Univ of New South Wales
- Cardiovascular Research
- Elsevier Science Bv
- Prince Henry Hospital
- Univ of New South Wales
- Named Person
- Brouwer, S.
- Fenech, L.
- Sim, A.S.
- Fenech, L.
- Master ID
- 2063633486/4072
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Cardiovascular
Research
ELSEVIER Cardlovascu[ar Rematch 35 0997) 2~0-255
Interactive effect of the p53 gene and cigarette smoking on coronary
artery disease
X.L. Wang, J. Wang, D.E.L. Wilcken "
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of New South Wales, Prince Henry/Prince of Wales
Hospitals, Sydney, Australia
Received 3 January 1997; accepted 15 April 1997
Abstract
Objective: p53 is a tumour suppressor protein involved in the control of cell growth and has an
established role in carcinogenesis,
particularly in relfition to smoking. It may also be related to arteriosclerosis by affecting smooth
muscle cell proliferation, a feature of
atherogenesis. Methods: We explored a role for p53 in atherogenesis by assessing the a~ssociation
between two DNA polymorphisms of
the p53 gene (MspI at intron 6 and Haelll at intron 1) and angiographically documented coronary
artery disease (CAD) in 654 Australian
Caucasian patients. Results: There was a significant interactive effect of the two polymorphisms and
cigarette smoking on CAD in a
logistic regression analysis (P ~- 0.0039) but no association between CAD and either individual p53
polymorphic marker. CAD
occurrence was more frequent in non-smoking patients with rare alleles at both sites (85.0%)
compared to those homozygous for common
alleles at both sites (70.4%). However, this was not seen in smokers (85.7 vs 82.8%). In all 654
patients cigarette smoking remained a
significant predictor of CAD irrespective of p53 genotypes ( P = 0.0065). Conclusions: Our findings
identify an interactive effect of both
p53 polymorphisms and cigarette smoking on the occurrence of coronary artery disease in that
non-smoking patients with rare alleles at
both sites had increased incidence of CAD. They illustrate the relevance of genotype-specific and
environment-dependent enhanced
cardiovascular risk and foreshadow a need for further studies to establish functional changes. ©
1997 Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords: p53 gene; DNA polymorphism; Cigarette smoking: Coronary artery disease; Gene-environment
interaction
I
I
I
I
I
1. Introduction
A large body of evidence has established that both
circulating and local arterial wall factors participate in the
initiation and progression of atherosclerotie lesions [1,2].
Among the vascular wall changes are endothelial dysfunc-
tion, uncontrollable proliferation of vascular smooth mus-
cle cells (VSMC) and abnormal accumulation of extracel-
lular matrix. Each of these may be influenced by both
genetic and environmental factors [1-5] and so too may
the relevant circulating variables [4,5].
Among the many, pathological processes occurring in
the vascular wall during atherogenesis, endothelial dys-
function has been thought a marker for the initial lesion
and VSMC proliferation important for its progression [I-3].
• Corresponding author. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Clin-
ical Sciences Building. Prince Henry Hospital, Linle Bay, NSW 2036,
Australia. Tel.: +61 (2) 9382 5026: fax: +61 (2) 9382 5755; e-mail:
x.l.wang@unsw.edu.au
Many factors may be involved in enhancing abnormal
proliferation, p53 is a mmour suppressor protein which is
expressed in many types of human cells and is involved in
the control of cell proliferation [6-9]. It also plays an
important role in regulating the growth of VSMC [8-10].
Loss of p53 activity causes unrestrained growth while
increased levels of p53 arrest cells in the G1 phase of the
cell cycle. Mutant alleles of p53 are frequently found and
also are often expressed at elevated levels in tumour cells
[6-8,11]. They tend to bind to the wild-type subunit
making it unable to function and in this way may alter the
regulation of cell growth. Mutations have been reported in
every codon of the five highly conserved domains from
exon 5 through to 9 in various cancers [6]. Cigarette
smoking appears to inactivate p53 by inducing mutations
[12,13] and therefore we reasoned that p53 may influence
the contribution of smoking to atherogenesis. Indeed, see-
Thne for primal, review 31 days.
0008-6363/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII S0008-6363(97)00113-2
This article is tbr individual use only and may not be lbrther reproduced or stored electronically
~hthout written permission from the copyright holder.
Unau~hor~2ec[ reproduction may re.suit fn tinancfa! and other pena~ftfes, fc) ELSEVIER ;SCIENCE: BV

i eral polymorphisms in the non-coding region of the p53
have also been shown to predispose an individual who
ismokes, or who is a passive smoker, to the development of
mmours [14,15], although this was not found in a recent
Japanese study [16].
There are similarities between atherogenesis and benign
Immour formation although in atherogenesis the process of
proliferation is less aggressive and more chronic [17,18]. It
is possible, therefore, that while major p53 mutations at
iexons may lead to the development of malignant changes,
some DNA variations at the p53 gene associated with
quantitative changes in p53 production or minor alterations
in p53 function may also be associated with the compara-
tively mild enhancement found in atherogenesis.
growth
Data about such a relationship are sparse (only two stud-
ies) and controversial [9,19]. Recently, SpoiLet al. showed
la potential interactive effect of p53 and human cy-
tomegalovirus on coronary re-stenosis after angioplasty [9].
A role for p53 in atberogenesis is also supported indirectly
ibY the findings of Isner et al. [20]. They reported that
apoptosis, a process to which p53 contributes [7,10], oc-
curs in human atherosclerosis. However, D'Agostini et al.
failed to show any relationship between a p53 DNA
ipolymorphism and coronary artery disease (CAD) [19].
Atherogenesis is a muitifactodal process and many
factors, particularly cigarette smoking [21,22], could con-
Ifound a potential relationship between p53 and CAD. With
this in mind, we explored a possible relation between p53
DNA polymorphisms and CAD documented angiographi-
itally after controlling for other CAD risk factors including
cigarette smoking. We specifically investigated the hypoth-
esis that there are interactive effects between p53 and
cigarette smoking which influence atherogenesis by assess-
Iing this in Australian Caucasian CAD patients. We anal-
ysed two polymorphic markers on the p53 gene. One was a
HaelII polymorphism at intron 1 [23]; the other was the
IMspI polymorphism at intron 6 [24] which is in the region
(exons 5-9) of frequent mutations [6]. While many poly-
morphic markers have been reported in various introns of
p53 gene, we selected these two markers for the following
I the HaeIII marker is located close the
reasons.
Firstly,
to
promoter region of the gene and could be in linkage with
some functional changes in the regulatory region. Sec-
Iondly, MspI polymorphisms at intron 6 may be in linkage
disequilibrium with mutations responsible for functional
changes since exons 5-9 are in a 'hot' region for mum-
itions.
i
I
I
2. Methods
2.1. The patients
We studied Caucasian patients aged 65 years or less,
both men and women, consecutively referred to the East-
X.L. Wang et aL/ Cardiovascular Research 35 (1997) 250-255
251
em Heart Clinic at Prince Henry H~spital for coronary
angiography over an 18-month period in 1994 and 1995.
We excluded only patients shown to have significant left
main disease (> 50% luminal obstruction) because it was
difficult to categorise this small proportion of the total
(5.0%) within the classification system we used (see be-
low). A written consent was obtained from every patient
after a full explanation of the study which was approved
by the Ethics Committee of the University of New South
Wales.
A 4 ml venous blood sample was drawn into an EDTA
sample tube from patients before the angiogram after a
6-14 h fast. The blood sample was centrifuged within 2 h
and plasma and cellular components stored separately at
-70°C in aliquot until analysis. DNA was extracted from
the frozen cellular blood component by a salting-out
method [25]. The extracted DNA was stored at 4°C until
analysis.
2.2. Determination of the polymorphisms i~ the p53 gene
The HaelII polymorphie marker is located at intron 1
of the p53 gene as described by Ito et al. [23]. The relevant
DNA fragment was amplified by the 5'-'VI'CCGCTGTT-
TCTTCCCATG-3' for the upstream and 5'-
TGTGTGTAAATGCCACCTCG-3' for the downstream
palmers in the PCR. The amplification was performed for
35 cycles with annealing temperature of 60°C in a Hybaid
Thermal cycler in a total reaction of 50 p,l containing 180
ixM dN.TPs, 1.5 mM MgCI2, 50 mM KCI, 10 mM
Tris/HCl (pH 8.3), 50 pmol of each palmer and 2 units
Taq polymerase. 'The HaelII digest of the amplified frag-
ment was subjected to electrophoresis through 8% acryl-
anaide gel and identifies two alleles H1 58bp and 37bp,
and H2 95bp in which H1 is a common allele.
The MspI polymorphism is at intron 6, a G --* A substi-
tution 61 bp downstream from exon 6 of the p53 gene
(17p13) as described by McDaniel et al. [24]. This base
change abolishes a Mspl restriction site and can be de-
tected • after digestion of the relevant PCR fragment. The
primers used for the PCR were 5'-AGGTCTGGTT-
TGCAACTGGG-3' for the upstream and 5'-GAG-
GTCAAATAAGCAGCAGG-3' for the downstream
primers. The amplification was conducted for 35 cycles
with the annealing tern .perature of 59°C in a total reaction
volume of 50 ~,1 with contents the same a.~ the one above
except for the specific pair of palmers. The amplified 107
bp fragment was digested by MspI (MI allele, 63 bp, 44
bp; M2 allele, 107 bp) in which M1 is a common allele.
2.3. Coronary angiographic documentation of CAD
The presence and severity of coronary stenosis was
determined by coronary angiograms which were assessed
by two cardiologists who were unaware that the patients

252
X.I. Wang et al. / Cardiovascular Research 35 (1997) 250-255
were to be included in the study. Each angiogram was
classified as revealing either no coronary lesion or lesions
with less than or more than 50% luminal stenosis. For
CAD incidence, patients were classified as having or not
having angiographically demonstrable CAD; and for CAD
severity we grouped the patients into those having one,
two, or three major epicardial coronary arteries with more
than 50% luminal obstruction. We also used the Green
Lane coronary scoring system [25] which provides a nu-
merical value for lesion severity and takes account of the
amount of myocardium supplied by an affected vessel; the
maximal score is 15.
2.4. Documentation of cigarette smoking
We documented smoking status by grouping patients
into those who were non-smokers and had never smoked
and into those who were or had been smokers. Smokers
were further grouped as current smokers who had regularly
smoked at least 5 cigarettes per day for at least the
previous 3 mOhths and ex-smokers who had stopped smok-
ing for more than 1 year. The life-time smoking dose in
pack-years (1 pack-year = smoking one pack of 20
cigarettes each day for 1 year) was recorded as described
previously [25].
Table !
Characteristics of patients in the study (mean 5: s.e.m.)
Without CAD With CAD
N 128 526
Age (yr) 53.8 5:0.7 56.7 -I- 0.3 " "
BMI (kg/m2) 27.7 + 0.4 28.3 5:0.2
Smokers (%) a65 (50.8%) 373 (70.9%)
Life-time smoking dose (pack-years) 13.4 5:2.1 26.5 + 1.3 ° "
Total cholesterol (retool/l) 5.3 5:0.08 5.5 d:0.04
HDL-cholesterol (retool/l) 1.215:0.03 1.05 5:0.01 "
Triglyceride (retool/l) 1.684-0.08 2.075:0.05 °
TC/HDL-C 4.675:0.13 5.62+0.08 *
Lp(a) (rag/l) 286 + 28 315 5:15
Male/Female 68/60 417/109
HaeHl polymorphism
HI/I 104 (80.6%) 412 (78.5%)
HI/2 24 (18.6%) 106 (20.2%)
H2/2 I (0.8%) 7 0.3%)
"H2" allele # 0.101 0.114
Mspl polymorphism
MI/I 96(75.0%) 374(71.1%)
MI/2 28 (21.9%) 144 (27.4%)
M2/2 4 (3.1%) 8 (1.5%)
'M.2' allele0.141 0.152
a Smokers include both ex- and current smokers. ° * P < 0.01, ' * " P <
0.001 by Student's t-test or Xz comparison. Values are presented as
means:s.e.m. # H2 is the rar~ allele of the p53 HaelII polymorphism
and M2 is the rar~ allele of the p53 Mspl polymorphism.
2.5. Statistical analysis
The frequencies of the alleles and genotypes among
different subgroups were compared by X2-test. ANOVA
was used for comparison.of quantitative variables among 3
groups or more and Student's t-test for two group compar-
isons. A logistic regression analysis was used to assess the
independent contributions to CAD of various risk factors
while controlling for other variables using the SPSS-X
statistical package. In the logistic analysis, predictive vari-
ables are entered into the model either independently
(described as main effect) or jointly (described as interac-
tive effect).
3. Results
3.1. Genetic characteristics of the patients
The demographic information for the 654 patients (male
441, female 161) with or without angiographically demon-
strable CAD is shown in Table 1. Genotype distributions
of the p53 MspI and HaellI potymorphisms between the
two groups are not different and are in Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium as shown in Table 1. Although these two
polymorphic markers are located more than 11 200 bp
apart, they are in linkage disequilibrium (X2 = 9.89, dr-- 4,
P --- 0.042).
3.2. p53 polymorphisms and occurrence of angiographi-
cally documented CAD
Among the 654 patients there were 68 men and 60
women who had angiographically normal coronary arteries
(Table 1). Using ,a simple ×2-analysis, there were no
relationships between the MspI or HaelII polymorphisms
and the absence of CAD (X2 ~ 0.025, P ~ 0.98, and Xz ~
1.64, P = 0.44, respectively).
We assessed the relationship between the p53 polymor-
phisms and CAD occurrence in a logistic regression analy-
sis whilst controlling for the other potentially confounding
variables age, sex, presence of hypertension or diabetes,
body mass index, total cholesterol (TC), HDL cholesterol
(HDL-C), lipoprotein(a), TC/HDL-C ratio and cigarette
smoking. We entered both MspI, HaelII genotypes, smok-
ing status [in terms of smokers (current and ex-smokers)
and non-smokers], sex, presence of hypertension or dia-
betes, BMI and other lipoprotein variables as individual
terms, and MspI* smoking, HaellI*smoking,
Mspl* HaelII*smoking, MspI* HaelIl*sex,
Mspl * HaelII * age as interactive terms in a stepwise like-
lihood ratio model. For current and ex-smokers in this
patient population relationships with both CAD occurrence
and severity were the same and depended upon the life-time
smoking dose (in pack-years) as we have reported previ-
ously [25]. Therefore we grouped current and ex-smokers
|l
1
I
1
I

X.L. Wang et at. / Cardiovascular Research 35 (1997) 250-255
Table 2
Number of patients with CAD in relation to p53 HaelIl, Mspi polymor-
phisms and cigarette smoking
253
p53 Polymorphisms * Non-smokers Smokers
Males
H1/I and Ml/! 56/70 (80.0%) 184/211 (87.2%)
'H2" or 'M2' 37/51 (72.5%) 102/115 (88.7%)
"H2' and "M2' 12/12 (100%) 24/26 (92.3%)
Females
HI/I and MI/I 26/48 (54.1%) 34/53 (64.2%)
't-[2' or 'M2' 14/27 (51.9%) 26/29 (89.7%)
'I-I2' and 'M2' 5/8 (62.5%) 2/4 (50.0%)
Total
HI/I and MI/I 83/I 18 (70.3%) 218/264 (82.6%)
"H2' or 'M2" 52/78 (66.6%) 127/144 (88.2%)
'H2' and "M2' 17/20 (85.0%) 26/30 (86.7%)
'1 " H1/I and MI/I: common allele at both sites. 2" or 'M2': rare
alleles at either site. 'H2' and 'M2': rare "alleles at both sites. Common
alleles for the Haelll and MspI polymorphisms are 'HI" and 'Mi'; rare
alleles for alleles for the HaellI and MspI polymorphisms are "H2" and
i!"M2'. In the log-/inear regression analysis among all patients, smoking
status is significantly correlated with the presence of CAD (×2 = 10.82,
P ~ 0.001). WhiLst the p53 polymorphisms at both sites were not associ-
ated with CAD as a main effect (×2. t.97, P-0.37), there is a
I significant interactive effect of the polymorphisms and smoking on the
presence of CAD (×z ~ 7.112, P - 0.028).
I
I
!
I together in the model. While the analysis revealed that
neither Mspl nor HaelII had any significant main effect
ion CAD occurrence, the interactive term of
MspI* HaelII* smoking did. There was a significant posi-
tive effect on the presence of CAD (r ,~ 0.124, P ~" 0.0039)
in the model which included all the main-effect terms and
other interactive terms. The independent contributions of
smoking (r-0.108, P-0.0065), age (r~0.200, P--
0.00001), sex (r-- 0.214, P ~. 0.000001) and TC/HDL-C
ratio (r== 0.13, P = 0.0016) were unaffected by this inter-
active term and remained significant and independent pre-
dictors. This interactive effect between the p53 polymor-
phisms and smoking on CAD is shown for male and
female patients in Table 2. Using log-linear analysis, there
was a significant three-way interaction between smoking
status, p53 polymorphisms and CAD (X2S 7.112, P ~
0.028).
To explain the interactive effect derived from the logis-
tic regression, we have also presented the data in a tabu-
lated form in Table 2. Although the association between
smoking status and the presence of CAD was independent
of the p53 polymorphisms, cigarette smoking appeared to
weaken the association between p53 polymorphisms and
CAD. Whilst the percentages of CAD in smokers with
common alleles at both sites and rare alleles at either site
(82.6 and 88.2%) was much higher than in those of
non-smokers (70.3 and 66.6%), there was no difference in
patients with rare alleles at both sites between smokers
(86.7%) and non-smokers (85.0%). Furthermore, patients
who had one or two rare alleles at both sites and were
non-smokers were more likely to have CAD. However,
this association was not observed in smokers (Table 2).
We also explored the possibility that the p53 polymor-
phisms could quantitatively modify the association be-
tween cigarette smoking and CAD. As previously reported
[25], the life-time smoking dose in patients who were
smokers and who were assessed by coronary angiography
was greater among those with than among those smokers
without CAD (38.5 + 1.5 pack-years, n = 371, vs 29.5 +
2.8 pack-years, n = 67, P z 0,009). This difference was
maintained among smoking patients who were homozy-
gous' for the common alleles at both sites (30.5 ± 4.2
pack-years, n ~= 46 without CAD, vs 40.8 ± 2.1 p~ack-years,
n ~ 218 with CAD, P- 0.035), but was not maintained
among those with rare alleles at either of the two sites
(28.6:1:3.4 pack-years, n ,= 21 without CAD, vs 35.9 q- 2.1
pack-years with CAD, tt= 153, P--0.08). This is consis-
tent with the polymorphisms tending to minimise
smoking-related vascular changes a/though there was only
Table 3
Genotype distributions of the p53 MspI and HaeIII polymorphisms among all patients with different
number of significantly diseased vessels
I MspI genotypes a
Number of significantly diseased vessels ( > 50% luminal obstruction)
0 I 2
3
MI / 1 133 (72.7%) 127 (69.4%)
96 (67.1%) 117 (78.0%)
MI/2 or M2/2 50 (27.3%) 56 (30.6%)
47 (32.9%) 33 (22.0 .~,)
HaeIll genotypes b
H1/I 149 (81.4%) 139 (76.8%)
113 (79.6%) t~0 (78.9%).
HI/2 or H2/2 34 (18.6%) 42 (23.2%)
29 (20.4%) 32 (21.1%)
I p53 polymor~hisms
¢
H1/I and MI/I 111 (60.7%) 99 (55.3%)
82 (58.2%) 90 (60.4%)
"H2' or "M2' 61 (33.3%) 64 (35.6%)
43 (30.3%) 54 (36.2%)
I 'H2' and "M2' 11 (6.0%) 17 (9.5%)
17 (12.t%) 5 (3,4%)
The observed number of cases and the colunm percentage (in brackets) are presented. The association
between genotypes and the number of significantly
diseased vessels was assessed by Xz-test a~ followings: (a) X2 w 5.08, P z 0.16; (b) ×2 ~ 0.85, P =
0.83; (c) X2 ~ 10.48, P = 0.10.

254
X.L. Wang et aL / Cardiovascular Research 35 (1997) 250-255
Table 4
Interactive effect of p53 Mspl and HaelIl polyraorphisms and smoking
status on coronary scores (mean4-s.e.m.)
p53 Non-smokers Smokers Total
polymorphisms
HI/I and MI/I 4.394-0.32 (118) 5.394-0.24 (264) 5.08:t:0.20 (382)
"H2' or "M2" 4.01 +0.44 (78) 5.764-0.32 (144) 5.17±0.27 (222)
'H2" and "M2" 5.444-0.14 (20) 5.344-0.71 (230) 5.394-0.54 (50)
F 0.71 0.34 0.11
p 0.491 0.713 0.90
F- and P-values wer~ obtained by ANOVA.
a small number of patients with rare alleles in this sub-
group.
3.3. p53 polymorphisras and CAD severity
To explore a possible association between p53 and
CAD severity, as opposed to occurrence, we first assessed
severity from the number of significantly diseased vessels
(Table 3). The, frequency distribution of the rare alleles
was not different among those with or without signifi-
cantly diseased vessels (> 50% luminal obstruction). In a
×2 comparison, neither of the p53 polymorphic markers
was associated with the number of significantly diseased
vessels (X2= 5.08, P ~ 0.16 for MspI polymorphism and
X2-- 0.85, P = 0.83 for HaelII polymorphism and X2-=
10.48, P -- 0.105 for both polymorphisms). In a log-linear
analysis, we also found no three-way interactions among
p53 polymorphisms, cigarette smoking and the number of
significantly diseased vessels (×z = 4.39, P ,- 0.623) whilst
smoking remained a significant predictor for CAD severity
(×2 = 19.5, P ~= 0.0002).
Although non-smoking patients with the rare alleles at
both sites tended to have higher coronary scores as shown
in Table 4, the differences were not statistically significant.
Using ANOVA the p53 polymorphisms had no main effect
on the scores (P = 0.54). The p53 polymorphisms had no
interactive effects with sex (P=0.194), smoking (P=
0.061), or age (P-~ 0.226) on coronary scores whilst sex
(P = 0.0001), age (P ~,,0.00001) and cigarette smoking
(P---0.007) all exerted major main effects on the scores.
4. Discussion
The study identifies a significant interactive effect be-
tween both p53 polymorphisms and cigarette smoking on
CAD occurrence (P = 0.0039) whilst showing that the p53
HaeIII and MspI polymorphisms are not individually as-
sociated with CAD occurrence and severity (Tables I and
3). The presence of the p53 rare alleles at both sites was
associated with more frequent CAD in non-smokers, but
not in smoking patients. Although the incidence of CAD
among smokers was increased independent of genetic pro-
files, the p53 polymorphism did appear to modify the
association quantitatively. The frequency of CAD occur-
rence in patients homozygous for the wild-type at both or
either site was much higher in smokers than that in non-
smokers (Table 2), an observation further supported by the
differences in life-time smoking dose among smokers.
However, this difference was not seen in patients with rare
alleles at both sites. The findings of our study are consis-
tent with the notion that certain genetically related CAD
risk factors are environmentally modifiable, and that some
environmental CAD risk factors could also be affected by
specific genotypes.
It is well established that cigarette smoking is a major
risk factor for CAD. Smoking may enhance atherogenesis
by many mechanisms as reviewed previously [21,22,26,27],
but our present findings are consistent with the conclusion
that p53 is one of the target molecules smoking affects in
relation to atherogenesis. Denissenko et al. have also re-
cently reported the involvement of p53 gene mutations in
smokers who develop lung cancer 1"13]. Although the
mechanism(s) remains unknown, we could speculate that
smoking may quantitatively decrease the expression of
functional p53, which in mm leads to abnormal prolifera-
tion of many ceils including vascular smooth muscle cells
and therefore promotes atherogenesis. Vascular smooth
muscle cell proliferation contributes to atherogenesis. Fur-
thermore, p53-related atherogenesis could also be mediated
through p53-dependent apoptosis. Wild-type p53 induces
apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells, particularly
cells infected with viruses [10]. Thus expression of mutant
p53 could block this wild-type p53 function and suppress
apoptosis [10,20]. The occurrence of apoptosis in athero-
matous lesions has been described although the mecha-
nisms are not clear [20]. Specifically, our study shows that
to determine the true association between p53 and CAD it
is essential to control for smoking. Since both the MspI
and HaelII polymorphie markers are on introns, we postu-
late that they are in linkage with some functional effects
which induce either quantitative or qualitative changes in
p53 gene expression. Our results indicate that this relates
to the presence of the rare alleles at both sites since altered
CAD risk was only observed when both rare alleles were
present. It has been shown that intron 4 of p53 influences
gene expression [28,29], and Peller et al. have identified an
association between the MspI polymorphism at intron 6
and cancer predisposition [30]. There is therefore a likeli-
hood of a functional role for the polymorphisms we have
studied. In vitro experiments are required to explore func-
tional effects and to assess environment-dependent changes
in p53 gene expression.
Although the size of the patient population we studied
is appropriate for evaluation of the main effect of the
polymorphisms, for interactive effects the power is re-
duced because of the degrees of freedom. This is particu-
larly true for CAD severity and we found no association
between the p53 polymorphisms and CAD severity. In
conclusion, our current study is consistent with an associa-

X.I- Wang et al. / Cardiovascular Research 35 (1997) 250-255
255
tion between p53 polymorphisms and CAD occurrence
which is influenced by cigarette smoking. Cigarette smok-
ing remains a powerful CAD risk factor regardless of the
p53 genotyp* and may mask the relationships with the p53
genotypes we assessed whereas in non-smoking patients
with rare alleles at both sites the increased incidence of
CAD is evident.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from National
Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. We
wish to thank Ms Lily Fenech, Mr Steven Brouwer and all
nurses in the Eastern Heart Clinic for their assistance in
clinical data collection, and Ms Ah Siew Sirn for her
laboratory assistance. We are also mos~ ~rateful to the
cardiologists in the Department for allowing us to study
their patients.
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