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Genetic variant may elevate risk for acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery
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A common genetic variant is associated with increased risk for acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery, recent findings indicate.
According to the study background, HO-1 catalyzes the degradation of heme, which appears to be related to the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury. The researchers investigated whether an association exists between allelic frequencies of GT repeats in the HMOX1 gene promoter and acute kidney injury after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery in 2,377 patients (mean age, 65 years; 22% women; 100% white).
The researchers defined acute kidney injury as serum creatinine of at least 0.3 mg/dL within 48 hours or increased by at least 50% at 5 days after surgery. Patients were stratified by whether they had the short allele (< 27 GT repeats) or the long allele ( 27 GT repeats).
Compared with patients with two copies of the short allele, those with two copies of the long allele had a more than 50% increased odds of acute injury (OR = 1.58; 95% CI, 1.06-2.34), Leaf and colleagues found.
After adjustment for baseline and operative characteristics, the researchers determined that the OR of acute kidney injury per each long allele was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.05-1.5).
“We found that a common genetic variant in the HO-1 gene, which is present in approximately 40% of Caucasian individuals, is highly associated with the development of [acute kidney injury] following cardiac surgery,” David E. Leaf, MD, MMSc, from the division of renal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in a press release. “These results are consistent with iron toxicity as a pathogenic feature of cardiac surgery-associated [acute kidney injury], and HO-1 as a potential therapeutic target.” – by Erik Swain
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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