ErbB4 Gene Polymorphism Is Associated With the Risk and Prognosis of Congestive Heart Failure in a Northern Han Chinese Population

Background: There has been no research, evaluating the association between human Neuregulin (NRG) 1/ErbB2/ErbB4 gene polymorphisms and heart failure risk. Methods and Results: Genotyping of 13 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the NRG-1/ErbB2/ErbB4 genes was performed in 569 unrelated heart failure patients and 682 healthy controls from a Northern Han Chinese population with the use of iPlex SNP Genotyping analysis on a Sequenom Massarray System. In the ErbB4 gene, the variants rs10932374 and rs1595064 were associated with reduced risk of heart failure under allelic, recessive and additive genetic models, and the variants rs13003941 and rs1595065 were associated with increased risk of heart failure under allelic, dominant, and additive models. The G-G-C-C-T haplotype of rs10932374-rs13003941-rs1595064-rs1595065-rs3748960 in the ErbB4 gene increased the risk of heart failure (odd ratio 1.35, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.70; P = .014). The T variant of rs13003941 was associated with larger left ventricle (dominant model, P = .014; additive model, P = .048), and increased risk of overall death (relative risk [RR] 1.48, 95% CI 1.01-2.18; P = .045) and cardiovascular death (RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.04-2.33; P = .03) after adjusting for age and sex. NRG-1/ErbB2 gene polymorphisms were not associated with heart failure risk or prognosis. Conclusion: ErbB4 gene polymorphisms were associated with the risk, severity, and prognosis of heart failure in a Northern Han Chinese population.