Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene polymorphism in patients with multiple sclerosis from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Background: Increased activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and the inhibition of ACE in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, suggested that ACE may play a role in the pathogenesis and progression of MS. We recently published the first report on the potential association of MS and ACE I/D polymorphism in Slovenian and Croatian patients with MS, in which it was shown that the DD genotype might contribute to a higher risk of developing MS in men. To confirm these findings in a similar ethnic population, we analyzed ACE I/D gene polymorphism in patients with MS from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Subjects And Methods: One hundred and seventy patients with MS and 170 healthy controls were genotyped by the polymerase chain reaction method.

Results: There was no significant difference in the distribution of ACE I/D genotypes (p=0.783) or in the allelic frequencies (p=0.538) between patients with MS and control subjects. When patients with MS were stratified by sex, no statistically significant differences in allele or genotype distributions were observed. Finally, there was no indication of an impact of the ACE I/D genotype on disease course or severity.

Conclusion: The ACE I/D polymorphism is not a risk factor for development of MS, nor does it contribute to disease severity in this Bosnia and Herzegovina population.