IS042 Augmentation of Postnatal Neovascularization by Transplantation of Cord Blood-derived Endothelial Progenitor Cells

Thrombomodulin is an important endothelial anticoagulant protein that decreases thrombin activity and activates protein C. Our recent study has shown that the G-33A promoter mutation of thrombomodulin gene is associated with coronary artery disease. This study was conducted to determine whether the G-33A mutation in the promoter region of thrombomodulin gene is a genetic risk factor for ischemic stroke or carotid atherosclerosis. The functional significance of this mutation was also evaluated. We recruited 333 patients (mean age 64 years, 59% male) with ischemic stroke and 257 age- and sex-matched controls. In all study participants, carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by Duplex scanning, and thrombomodulin G-33A promoter mutation was detected by single-strand conformation polymorphism. Luciferase reporter gene assay was used to assess the influence of this mutation on thrombomodulin promoter activity. There was no significant difference in the thrombomodulin G-33A mutation frequency (GAAA genotypes) between the stroke and the control groups (18.3 vs. 24. 1%, P 0.105). The G-33A mutation frequency was also similar between the study participants with and without carotid atherosclerosis (22.2 vs. 19.8%, P0.550). When only younger subjects (age 560 years) were included in the analysis, however, we found the mutation occurred more frequently in participants with carotid atherosclerosis (33.3 vs. 17.3%, odds ratio [OR] 2.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16‐4.90, P0.027). Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that only diabetes mellitus (OR 3.11, 95% CI 1.33‐7.30, P0.009) and G-33A mutation (OR2.46, 95% CI 1.14‐5.29, P 0.021) were associated independently with carotid atherosclerosis in younger subjects. As assessed by luciferase reporter gene assays, the contructs bearing the G-33A mutation showed a significant decrease (36912%) in transcriptional activity in comparison with the wild type constructs. Our findings suggest that G-33A mutation reduces the thrombomodulin promoter activity and is associated with carotid atherosclerosis in younger subjects. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.