Background: Several risk factors for varicose veins have been identified: female gender, combined with obesity and pregnancy, occupations requiring standing for long periods, sedentary lifestyle, history of deep-vein thrombosis and family history. However, no specific gene variants related to a wide prevalence of varicosities in general population have been identified. Extracellular matrix composition, predominantly maintained by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), may affect the vein-wall structure, which may lead to dilation of vessels and cause varicosities.
Aims: MMP-1 (tissue collagenase I) and MMP-3 (stromelysin I) expression was found to be raised in varicose veins compared with normal vessels. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate a potential association between MMP1 and MMP3 promoter polymorphisms and a risk of varicose veins.
Methods: Genotyping for the presence of the polymorphisms -1607dupG (rs1799750) in MMP1 and -1171dupA (rs3025058) in the MMP3 promoter region was performed using PCR and restriction-fragment length polymorphism assays in a group of 109 patients diagnosed with varicose veins and 112 healthy controls.
Results: The frequencies of the MMP1 and MMP3 alleles (minor allele frequency 0.440 in patients vs. 0.451 in the controls for MMP1-1607*G and 0.514 vs. 0.469 for MMP3-1171*dupA, respectively) and of genotypes did not differ significantly between patients and controls.
Conclusions: The MMP1-1607dupG and MMP3-1171dupA promoter polymorphisms are not valuable markers of susceptibility for varicose veins.