Coagulation factor XII gene C46T polymorphism and risk of cerebral hemorrhage in a Chinese population

Factor XII (F12) plays a complex role in the coagulation system. T allele of F12 C46T polymorphism was shown to lead to reduced F12 plasma levels in an allele-dose-dependent manner. This functional F12 C46T polymorphism was probably a risk factor for ischemic stroke. We tested whether this genetic variant is associated with the risk for cerebral hemorrhage (CH). We performed a case-control study including 195 patients with CH and 116 healthy population controls, which were all of southern Han-Chinese origin. The F12 C46T genotype was assessed using Touchdown PCR and Multiplex SNaPshot analysis. No statistically significant differences were found in the allele or genotype distributions of the F12 C46T polymorphism among CH patients and control subjects, even after adjusting for different confounding variables (P > 0.05). Our results demonstrated that the F12 C46T polymorphism has no major role in genetic susceptibility to cerebral hemorrhage. The highest T allele distribution in our population among different populations increased the reliability of this conclusion.