Genetic variation in glutathione S-transferase genes and risk of nonfatal cerebral stroke in patients suffering from essential hypertension.

Oxidative stress resulting from an increased amount of reactive oxygen species and an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants has been implicated in pathogenesis of cerebral stroke. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between common polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase M1, T1, and P1 genes and risk of stroke in hypertensive individuals. A total of 667 unrelated Russian individuals with hypertension, including 306 hypertensives who suffered from cerebral stroke and 361 hypertensives who did not have cerebrovascular accidents, were recruited for the study. The deletion polymorphisms of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes and polymorphism Ile105Val of the GSTP1 gene were genotyped by a multiplex polymerase chain reaction and restriction analyses, respectively. No differences in GSTM1 and GSTP1 genotype distributions between the cases and controls have been observed. The null GSTT1 genotype was found to be associated with increased risk of cerebral stroke after Bonferroni correction and adjusting for confounding variables such as gender, blood pressure, body mass index, and antihypertensive medication use (odds ratio 1.51 95 % CI 1.09-2.07, P = 0.01). The present study was the first to show the association of null genotype of the GSTT1 gene with increased risk of cerebral stroke.