HFE H63D Polymorphism as a Modifier of the Effect of Cumulative Lead Exposure on Pulse Pressure: The Normative Aging Study
Date
2010-09
Authors
Zhang, Aimin
Park, Sung Kyun
Wright, Robert O.
Weisskopf, Marc G.
Mukherjee, Bhramar
Nie, Huiling
Sparrow, David
Hu, Howard
Version
OA Version
Citation
Zhang, Aimin, Sung Kyun Park, Robert O. Wright, Marc G. Weisskopf, Bhramar Mukherjee, Huiling Nie, David Sparrow, Howard Hu. "HFE H63D Polymorphism as a Modifier of the Effect of Cumulative Lead Exposure on Pulse Pressure: The Normative Aging Study" Environmental Health Perspectives 118(9): 1261-1266. (2010)
Abstract
BACKGROUND. Cumulative lead exposure is associated with a widened pulse pressure (PP; the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure), a marker of arterial stiffness and a predictor of cardiovascular disease. Polymorphisms in the hemochromatosis gene (HFE) have been shown to modify the impact of cumulative lead exposure on measures of adult cognition and cardiac function. OBJECTIVES. We examined whether the HFE mutations modify the impact of lead on PP in community-dwelling older men. METHODS. We examined 619 participants with a total of 1,148 observations of PP from a substudy of bone lead levels (a measure of cumulative exposure, measured by in vivo K-shell X-ray fluorescence) and health in the Normative Aging Study between 1991 and 2001. Linear mixed-effects regression models with random intercepts were constructed. RESULTS. Of the 619 subjects, 138 and 72 carried the HFE H63D and C282Y variants, respectively. After adjusting for age; education; alcohol intake; smoking; daily intakes of calcium, sodium, and potassium; total calories; family history of hypertension; diabetes; height; heart rate; high-density lipoprotein (HDL); total cholesterol:HDL ratio; and waist circumference, baseline bone lead levels were associated with steeper increases in PP in men with at least one H63D allele (p-interaction = 0.03 for tibia and 0.02 for patella) compared with men with only the wild types or C282Y variant. CONCLUSIONS. The HFE H63D polymorphism, but not the C282Y mutation, appears to enhance susceptibility to the deleterious impact of cumulative lead on PP, possibly via prooxidative or pro-inflammatory mechanisms.
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License
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