Gene-environment interactions and vascular risk in the elderly

Perspective study have demonstrated a positive association between plasma levels of protein involved in hemostatic mechanisms and the development of atherothrombotic disease in individual of either sex. The genetic factors that modulate the individual susceptibility to multifactorial diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, are common polymorphisms which generally have a modest effect at an individual level, but, because of their high frequency in population, can be associated with a high attributable risk. Potential synergistic gene-environment interaction can reveal or facilitate the phenotypic expression of such susceptibility genes. Common biallelic polymorphisms of many genes encoding for coagulation and fibrinolysis proteins influence the plasma levels of these proteins. Cardiovascular diseases (e.g., myocardial infarction, angina, and stroke) reach epidemic proportions in the elderly and are the primary limits to survival in man. In the last decades a special attention is blooming on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly and genetic epidemiological studies on disease of aging are increasing rapidly. Many aspects of aging involve inflammation. Age-related disease such as atherosclerosis are triggered or worsened by systemic chronic inflammation. Some traditional risk factors loose importance as predictors of atherothrombotic diseases and increases the role of novel cardiovascular risk factors as clotting and fibrinolytic proteins.