Glycoprotein IIIa (GpIIIa) is a membrane receptor, found in various tissues, that has two alleles: A1 and A2. Signalling cascade
of GpIIIa is modulated by enzymes called calpains, proteases that may also influence glucose metabolism. There is one small
study that shows a high association of A1/A2 polymorphism with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In our research we planned to evaluate
the association of A1/A2 polymorphism with type 2 diabetes in a population of patients with ST elevation acute myocardial
infarction (STEMI). The study comprised 352 individuals. From the cohort of patients hospitalised for STEMI we chose 113 patients
with diagnosed diabetes (diabetic group) and 118 patients with STEMI and normal glucose metabolism (non-diabetic group). The
population group consisted of 121 persons. Genotyping was performed by the restriction fragments length polymorphism (RFLP)
method. The frequency of alleles in all groups was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The percentage of A2 allele carriers was
comparable among all groups : 20.4% (diabetic patients), 23.7% (nondiabetic) and 21.5% (control group) (
p>0.05). There was no significant difference in frequency of A2 allele among the groups. We have not observed any association
between GpIIIa polymorphism with either type 2 diabetes or STEMI.
Key words Type 2 diabetes - Glycoprotein IIIa - Polymorphism - Myocardial infarction - Case-control study