Inflammation plays an important role in the patho­genesis of atherosclerosis. This study looked for a possible association of the –308 (G->α) polymorphism of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, with myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The polymorphism was studied by a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in 306 male patients with myocardial infarction (MI), 149 individuals with SCD and 245 healthy controls. The frequency of TNFA1 allele was 84.96% in the control group, 89.05% in the patients with MI, and 82.89% in the individuals with SCD, and of the TNFA2 allele 15.04, 10.95 and 17.11%, respectively. No significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies were found between the study groups and the healthy control individuals. But, in the patients with MI and those with SCD, the frequencies of the TNFA2 allele (17.11 vs. 10.95%, p = 0.007) and theTNFA1/2 genotype (34.23 vs. 19.93%, p = 0.001) in the group with SCD were significantly higher. We conclude that the –308 (G->α) polymorphism of the TNF-α gene is not associated with MI or SCD in the male population of Bashkortostan, but may be a marker of SCD in patients with coronary artery disease.
Key words: Atherosclerosis, Gene, Myocardial infarction (MI), Polymorphism, Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).