Correlation between Apolipoprotein E genetic polymorphism and atrial fibrillation

Abstract Background： We speculated that there was a correlation between apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genetic polymorphisms and the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) based on the AF inflammatory mechanism. The high-risk alleles of ApoE were examined in patients with AF and controls to determine the distribution of genotype and allele frequencies. Methods： From January 2017 to January 2019, 64 patients with AF in the department of cardiovascular medicine of the Lianyungang Second People's Hospital, and 49 healthy outpatient volunteers, were enrolled. ApoE gene polymorphisms were examined using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Statistical analyses were performed to identify high-risk ApoE alleles. Results： A total of 113 patients were enrolled in this study. Among them, 64 patients were in the AF group (38 male and 26 female), with an average age of 74.38 ± 8.37 years. The control group consisted of 49 cases (29 male and 20 female), with an average age of 65.24 ± 12.14 years. The six ApoE phenotypes ε2/ε2, ε2/ε3, ε2/ε4, ε3/ε3, ε3/ε4, and 4/ε4 were observed in 0.9% , 13.2%, 2.7%, 58.4% , 19.5%, and 5.3% . The proportions of our study population with ApoE protective, general, and risk genotypes accounted for 14.1%，61.1% , and 24.8% , respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in ApoE gene polymorphism frequencies related to gender, height, weight, smoking status, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and coronary heart disease (P＞0.05). There were significant differences in age, body mass index（BMI）, larger left atrial diameter（LAD）, and left ventricle ejection fraction(LVEF) (P＜0.05). The observed genotype frequencies were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and were representative of the population. Conclusion： There is a correlation between the ApoE genetic polymorphism and the occurrence of AF, and ApoEε4 is a high-risk genotype for AF.